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PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN
CHURCH
OR
LECTURES AND SERMONS BY A PRIEST
OF THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH
BY
SEBASTIAN DABOVICH
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
CUBEEY AND COMPANY, PUBLISHER
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PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN
CHURCH
OB
LEOTUBES AND SEKMONS BY A PRIEST
OF THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH
BY
SEBASTIAN DABOVICH
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
CUBEBY AND COMPANY, PUBLISHER!
COPYRIGHT, 1899,
BY
SEBASTIAN DABOVICH.
All Rights Reserved.
To the Parish Priests
AND TO
Their Assistants, the School Teachers of the
Church in America,
This Volume is Respectfully Dedicated
by their brother,one who knows their labor
in the tilling of the soil and the
sowing of the seed.
Speaking the truth in love. (Ephesians iv : 15. )
PREFACE.
IN this book I offer to the English-speaking public in
general, and to the American in particular, a historic,
theological, and moral review of the Orthodox Eastern
Apostolic Church, commonly called the Greek-Kussian
Church, in the form of lectures and sermons, thus en-
abling them to see the actual practice and teaching of a
Church which is making herself at home in the West,
notwithstanding her birth in the East, and which knows
none other head but Jesus Christ.
Now and then people are told, chiefly through small
journalism, that the Emperor of Russia is the head of
the Orthodox Church. There are some who accept this
view, and these belong to two classes : the uninformed
and the prejudiced. It must be made clear that the
Orthodox Church has three of her Patriarchs residing
in the Turkish Empire, while about 6,000,000 of her
members are the subjects of the Emperor of Austria,
besides which we have to count the Kingdom of Greece
the Church in Egypt, and three independent branches
of the Church in the Balkan States. We simply men-
tion the purely characteristic Orthodox Church in
Japan, the missions in China, America, and elsewhere,
together with the Church's congregations in all the
countries of Europe, which, though peculiarly original,
in regard to their local premises, are, nevertheless, in
spiritual relationship with the Great Church of Holy
6 PREFACE.
Russia, relying upon her for the larger portion of their
support. And the Russian Church, enjoying in complete
measure the sympathy of the Orthodox and highly pious
Ruler of the Empire, does not begrudge Orthodox mis-
sions her support, which is so often made the subject for
taunting with suspicions by outsiders who are strangers
to the Christian spirit of toleration. Thus it is clear
that the Orthodox Church has no Pope-head ; she is not
a monarchy, but as the Church of Christ she is Catholic
and Apostolic. Indeed, it would seem strange to say
that in this country Queen Victoria is the head of the
Episcopal Church, beoause the Anglican and Episcopal
Churches are in close communion.
Readily do we acknowledge, and sometimes too hastily
adopt, the results of the great achievements of the
Western mind and spirit in the affairs of this world;
but in matters of faith the Eastern is, as it has ever been,
the source and cradle of everything that is purest, high-
est, and heavenly. Humiliating though it might appear
to the haughty spirit of the West, it will at last, and of
necessity, turn its eyes towards the East and realize the
saying : Ex Oriente lux!
SEBASTIAN DABOVICH,
A priest of the Holy Orthodox Church.
San Francisco, on the day of our Lady of Kazan, 1899.
CONTENTS.
s PAGE
The Immortality of the Soul . . 9
The Necessity for Divine Eevelation,
and the Indications of a Eevealed
Eeligion 23
The Authenticity and Truthfulness of
the Gospel 37
The True Church of Christ . . .64
The Education of Children . . .78
Sermon on New Year's Day . . . 85
Thoughts on Fast and Temperance . 95
Sermon on the Gospel of the Prodigal 103
Sermon Preached on Orthodox Sunday 108
Sermon Preached on the Third Sunday
of Great Lent 115
Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Great
Lent 122
Thoughts for Good Friday at the Pas-
sions and Burial of Christ . . 128
8 contents.
Sermon on the Gospel Eelating to the
Impotent 133
Sermon for the Sunday when the Gospel
of the Blind is Read . . . 143
Sermon on the Feast of the Ascension 148
Sermon Preached on Trinity Sunday . 153
The Condition of Society . . . 160
Sermon to Those Preparing for Holy
Communion 165
Address on Christmas Day . . .169
(UNIVERSITY
THE IMMOKTALITY OF THE SOUL.
God is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all
live unto Him. (Luke xx. 88.)
THERE are many proofs testifying to the
immortality of the soul, and they differ by
degrees of strength, and the source from whence
they proceed. There are proofs of supposition,
then positive ones, and, finally, decisive proofs.
We have some in visible nature, others are had
from the attributes of God's being, and from the
nature of our soul, and then there are open and
experimental proofs.
What do we see in nature? A change of one
and the same being from one condition to another
higher form of existence. This is observed more
clearly, especially, in the world of insects. Take,
for an instance, the creeping worm and the flying
butterfly, etc. In the same manner does man
here on earth undergo two principal forms of
life, to say nothing of his ages.
First he is formed and lives unconsciously in
his mother's womb, then, on being born into the
10 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
world, he lives on the earth. This life is incom-
paratively higher than the first, yet here the days
for man are exchanged by dark nights; after days
of good fortune there come days of misfortune.
It is natural for him to await a third and better
life, when he will freely move in the space over
the earth, where it is eternal day, and where
there is no sorrow nor sighing.
Of course this proof is suppositional, but it
contains no small degree of convincing power.
The Lord himself has implanted in our nature
types and foretellings of the better life which is
to come.
We also see that the animal kingdom, and man
as well, are gifted with a generic immortality.
By transmitting life from generation to genera-
tion, they will last as long as the earth continues
in its present condition. And why cannot God
give to the highest of all creatures, and to
him who rules over all animals — i. e., to man —
besides a generical also a personal immortality?
The Lord is all-powerful. He can create ever-
lasting beings. He is all-good, and the best
good is a life which has no end and knows no
grief.
The highest being on earth, — i.e., man, —
were he not destined everlastingly to glorify the
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 11
eternal God, and were he not immortal, the earth
would be a sorrowful spectacle of the all-destroy-
ing and all-devouring death, and God would be
only the God of the dead, and not of the living
upon earth.
There are yet other proofs of the immortality
of the soul, which rest upon two principles com-
bined: First, the existence and attributes of
God; second, upon the nature of the soul.
The first positive and clear proof of this kind
is the following: Without a doubt there is a
God; because He reveals Himself to man, not
only in his soul, but in visible nature, and by a
direct manifestation of Himself. He is a being
all-just, all-holy. In the nature of man's soul
he has implanted the aspiration for good deeds,
and the aversion for evil; and there are many
people who try to do right and accomplish holy
deeds, while at the same time they bear heavy
trials of self-renouncement. Yet we see on earth
that sinners often enjoy good fortune and suc-
cess, and the just suffer till death, and mostly at
the hands of sinners.
If there was no other life for people, in which
there must be a reward according to actions,
then God would not be all-just and holy. He
would not be merciful to the good, while show-
12 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
ing mercy to the unjust ones, and this cannot be
conceived of God. Therefore, as God is holy,
there will be another life, in which the sinners
and the righteous will receive their just reward.
Another proof of the immortality of the soul
is like this, but wider in its contents. In the
mind of man God has implanted a desire for the
truth, in his will a striving for the good, in his
heart an inspiration for happiness; but the mind
of man does not become satisfied with the knowl-
edge obtained on earth. He sees that it is not,
by far, complete and perfect. His will meets
with much resistance in growing in the good.
Although man labors much for the good while
on earth, yet he finds himself, by far, undevel-
oped in a moral sense; he feels the burden of
sin; his heart finds no true blessedness on earth.
The thought of eternity and the everlasting is
rooted in our soul. It is not only that the soul
possesses the idea of the infinite and most high
Being, but with the heart and will itself it
yearns to approach Him.
Furthermore, what meaning is there in the
fact that people, by different ways, endeavor to
perpetuate their name upon the earth, desiring
to be remembered as long as possible after their
death?
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 13
All mankind, with the exception of a few indi-
viduals, believe in the future life. Why should
the Creator implant in the spirit of man such
lofty aspirations, if they were not to be realized,
if such hopes were not fulfilled and desires not
satisfied, — L-e., if there were no better, everlast-
ing existence? It would not be according to the
goodness, and the wisdom, and the holiness of
the Almighty, of which we know.
Therefore, as it is beyond doubt that there is
an eternal and all-perfect God, it is also beyond
doubt that there will be a life without end for
man, in which the longings of his spirit, or soul,
will be satisfied.
Also, many uncommon manifestations of the
powers of the soul prove its non-materialistic
and everlasting qualities. Such are: Predictions
of events in the future; visions of what is going
on in another part of the earth, at a great dis-
tance; and distinct foresight of the future, some-
times at a very long period in advance, and most
often in images, not only in sleep, but also in a
wakeful condition.
The most definite and decisive proofs of the
immortality of the soul are the theological ones
which we have from Divine revelation, and also
experimental ones, in the appearance of the
souls of people who are dead.
14 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
God has many times revealed Himself to
people, in different ways, and he still does so,
through His saints, chiefly in prophecies, signs,
and miracles. But why has He revealed Him-
self to people, and does so still? He has and
yet does so in order to prepare us for the next
blessed life.
God has not only revealed Himself to man-
kind, but he has shown us the way and the
means by which to attain the better, heavenly
life.
The Lord, in his revelation, says that the soul
will live eternally, that it will never die, and that
man, in his very body, after the resurrection of
the dead, cannot die. (Luke xx. 36.)
It would fill a large book to relate all the
appearances of the soul known of in the ancient
world. And since the time of Christianity you
have read or heard of the miracles in the lives
of the saints.
If we were to gather authentic facts pertain-
ing to visions from the spirit world in a period
nearer to our day, why, they would make up
several volumes. Not only saints have appeared,
but sinners, and the souls of common people
were revealed on earth for the knowledge and
the assuring of the living in the existence of a
future life.
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 15
Although it is forbidden Christians to thrust
themselves, of their own accord, reaching out
for still more evidence, into the spirit world, as
well as it is strictly condemned by the Church
systematically to practice the occult sciences,
yet, on an occasion like this one, we may, for
your proper information, relate, of the many, at
least a few such instances.
When the Queen of Sweden, Ulrica, had died
in the castle of Gripsholm, her body was laid in
a coffin, and in the front room a company of the
Royal Guards were on duty. Punctually at
noon-time there appeared in the parlor the
Countess Stenbok, from the capital of Stock-
holm, whom the Queen had loved, and the com-
mander of the Guards led her to the body of
the Queen, and left her there.
As she did not soon return, the Captain opened
the door, but, struck with horror, he fell back.
On running to his aid, the officers then present
saw, through the open door, the Queen, who was
standing in her coffin, and embracing the Count-
ess Steinbok. The vision seemed to float, and
then changed into a heavy mist. When it soon
cleared off, the body of the Queen was lying
in the coffin, and the Countess Stenbok was
nowhere to be found in the castle.
16 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
At once a messenger was dispatched with
information of this incident to Stockholm, but
word came back, that the Countess had not left
the capital, and that she died at the time when
they saw her in the embrace of the Queen.
Immediately a statement of the facts was writ-
ten down, and signed by all who saw this vision.*
Much has been written of the appearances
of the tvhite woman, at different times, in the
palaces and castles of Germany, foretelling the
death of a member of the royal family. Judging
from a portrait which was found, she proved to
be the Princess Bertha von Eozenberg, who
lived in the fifteenth century.
In December, 1628, she went through the
apartments and halls of the Berlin mansion,
and distinctly pronounced these words : u Come,
thou Judge of the living and the dead. There
is yet hope of a judgment for me." During
the present century she appeared to the Queen
Louise twice, and later on, — on other occasions,
which you may remember, having read of it in
the newspapers.
Leaving these narratives, of which there are
many in the histories of all nations, we shall
now take up some facts, which are more appeal-
* See the second edition of Dr. Shalberg's book, p. 63.
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 17
ing and pleasant, for the reason that they con-
cern persons who are especially dear to us, being
members of the Orthodox Church of Christ.
In 1855 there lived in the town of Epiphany,
in the Russian province of Tula, a merchant, by
name Basil Jvanov R., who held the office of
church-warden at the cathedral. His family
consisted of himself, his wife, two sons, — Nich-
olas, 23 years of age, and married; John, 17
years old, — and three daughters, — Catherine,
13 years; Raisa, 11; and Alexandra, 6 years.
On the 10th of April, 1855, which was on the
eve of the Sunday of the Holy Myrrh-bearing
Women, Raisa, from fright, was suddenly taken
with strong convulsions, while at the same time
she evoked curses against God and His saints,
but especially against St. Sergius. Medical aid
afforded no relief to the unfortunate child.
Two months after the disease began, on the
11th and 12th of June, Raisa was taken with
still more terrible convulsions. Becoming con-
scious, she said that St. Sergius appeared to her,
that he talked with her, and brought her a church
loaf, which she ate. It seemed as though she
ate, her relations said, but they could not see
the pj-osphora, and attributed this to her sick-
ness. The unbelief of her oldest brother, Nich-
olas, was especially painful to the girl.
18 PKEACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
In response to the instructions of St. Sergius,
she requested all in the house to repeat the
prayer, May God arise, and to make the sign
of the cross. With great difficulty the mother
set her fingers and made the sign of the cross
upon her. It appeared to her that evil spirits
were leaving her, as she saw, on making the
form of the cross.
By another intimation from St. Sergius, an
image of himself was found in the corner behind
the sacred pictures, and this was put upon her.
Desiring to convince her brother of the fact
of the appearance of the holy man with a church
loaf, she asked for a glass of clean water, and
taking some of the water into her mouth, she let
it out again. Then could be seen crumbs of
white bread in the water, which no one had
given her.
After this she announced that the saint would
come to her on the 13th date. At eleven o'clock
in the evening of the appointed day, another
spasm most frightfully shook her. In half an
hour after, she arose and said, " Here comes St.
Sergi," and then went to the window. Having
opened the window, she let out her arms and
began talking to some one. After this she
turned to her brother, and giving him something
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 19
in a paper, tells him to hold it with reverence,
as something holy. Then was given her, from
below the window, a cross made of white rib-
bons. After showing it, she said that she was
told to return it. At this her face became bright.
Her parents and the home folk at the same time
felt a happiness and reverent fear.
Notwithstanding all their requests to give
them the cross, she let it down in her hand out
of the window, and it disappeared. The family
ran out of the house, which was a one-story
building, began to look for the cross under the
window, but could not find it.
After this she requested her brother to show
what he held in his hand. There was found in
the paper a corner-formed particle of a church
loaf, and some pieces of incense. Upon the
paper these words were written: "It is Thou,
O Lord."
On being questioned by her relations, she
said that St. Sergius came to her in company
with a beautiful lad who was girdled with a
deacon's stole. The holy man took out from
under his cloak a napkin, out of which he gave
her the paper and the cross. The paper with
the prosphora and incense he ordered to be
kept, but the cross to be returned. He also
20 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
gave instructions that the girl's relations should
believe, especially the brother Nicholas. Con-
cerning the lad who appeared with him, he said :
"He will guard you."
After this the sick girl became entirely well.
The next year, in June, 1856, she traveled with
her mother and sister to the Troitsa Monastery,
or Lavra of St. Sergi, near Moscow, and her
mother told the superiors of all that happened.
The particle of church bread, which she brought
with her, proved to be the baking of the Monas-
tery.
These events were written down, and as facts
they were attested to by the signatures of the
girl's father, mother, and brother, and then by
the archpriest, the priest, and the deacon of the
St. Nicholas Cathedral in Epiphany, by each
separately. Still this occurence was not pub-
lished in print for six years, only after six years,
when it was learned that Raisa still continued in
good health, it was published with the consent
of Metropolitan Philaret in the journal of the
Theological Academy of Moscow, This appear-
ance of St. Sergius occurred 464 years after his
death.
In 1812, when Napoleon entered Moscow,
Prince Eugene, the Viceroy of Italy, with a
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 21
division of warriors left Moscow for Zveniqorod
to pursue the Russian partisans. The Prince
occupied rooms in the Monastery of St. Sawa,
who was a pupil of St. Sergius of Radonej.
About ten o'clock the Prince, without undressing,
lay down and fell asleep. In the meantime he
sees a man in a long black habit — whether asleep
now or awake, he did not know ; by the light of
the moon he could see the man walk close up to
him ; he was old, with a grey beard. Then the
visitor said to him : " Give thy men orders not
to plunder the monastery; especially see that
they take nothing from out the church. If thou
compliest with my wish, then God will have
mercy upon thee, and thou shalt return to thy
fatherland well and in safety."
Next morning the prince gave command that
the division should return to Moscow ; first, on
going into the church, he saw by the tomb of St.
Sabbas a picture of the man who appeared to
him, and recognizing the image he reverently
knelt before the relics of the saint and then took
down in his diary a note of all that happened.
All the marshals of Napoleon came to their
end unfortunately, but Eugene remained safe
and was nowhere wounded in a battle after this.
He expressed his will to his son Maximilian
22 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
that, should he ever visit Eussia, to go and offer
his veneration at the tomb of St. Sabbas. The
son came to Russia in 1839, during the reign of
Emperor Nicholai Pavlovich, and after the mili-
tary maneuvers on the field of Borodina, in
memory of the battle of 1812, he inquired of the
whereabouts of the monastery of St. Sawa,
went there with guides, and knelt before the
grave of the holy man. This event is so well
known in history that there can be no doubt.
And so, this earth is a place for our temporal
residence. It is the nursery of reasonable beings
for other worlds. Thus, we will, and may be
soon, taken from the earth. Let us pray the Lord,
that He give us strength to leave our sins, which
bring us down into the dark spaces of the uni-
verse, and that He help us to accomplish deeds
which take us up into the high, eternally bright
mansions of heaven. Amen.
THE NECESSITY FOE DIVINE REVE-
LATION, AND THE INDICATIONS OF
A REVEALED RELIGION.
As you believe not me, believe the works which I do, that
ye may know and understand that the Father is in me, and
I in the Father, saith our Lord to the unbelieving Jews.
(John, x. 38.)
THERE are many religions in the world,
and each people separately seem to be con-
vinced that they hold the true faith, which was
established by God. Why is it that the different
races of mankind consider their faith to be the
one Divinely revealed? It is because God has
revealed Himself to the first people created by
Him; then, during the course of time, He re-
vealed Himself to the better people, informing
them, and others through them, of His holy will.
Fifteen centuries before the birth of Christ, dur-
ing the time of Moses, God made known His
holy will, through Balaam the prophet, who lived
in the midst of pagans. About this time, or
somewhat earlier, God appeared — for his pres-
24 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
ence individually may be revealed — to Job and
his friends. But sooner than this, when nations
began to leave God, and corrupted, by injurious
notions, the revealed religion, — then it was that
evil spirits commenced to deceive them with
their revelations. Finally, there were persons,
also, who, abusing the confidence and belief of
others in Divine revelation, falsely, but craftily,
set up themselves as messengers from God.
Why did God, from the beginning, reveal
himself to people? Because, as we have said,
the natural knowledge of the human mind con-
cerning God, even before the fall of man, has
not the strength, the precision, and the complete-
ness; yet man is responsible for his actions: he
is obliged to answer for his attitude toward God,
to other people, and to himself. Therefore all
people in general believe only in a revealed reli-
gion. Some people foolishly say, God has given
man a mind, and that is enough for him. But
has not man, even besides his mind, many other
teachers, in the persons of his parents, teachers,
and guardians ? Why should it be against rea-
son to have as our teacher God Himself in those
things which pertain to God?
Further, experience shows that mankind is in
a disordered condition, out of which it cannot
NECESSITY FOR DIVINE REVELATION. 25
help itself. Is it natural that people, who are
considered educated, while not believing in Di-
vine revelation, should, in matters of knowledge
concerning the Divine, separate into parties
which are opposed to ane another?
1. A certain party, in defiance of sound rea-
son, says that God, and His law given to people,
do not exist ; but they suppose that matter, v^ith.
its invisible power, (nevertheless, it is supposed
by them that matter has its invisible power and
law,) has existed forever, and that the world and
our living is not controlled by a reasonable Law-
giver.
2. There are some which say that everything
in the world is God; all the things which we can
see, they say, is the expression of the invisible
soul of the world, which is unconscious, and gets
to know itself by an evolution in the different
forms of life. These so-called theosophists
thereby ascribe to God Himself all the failures,
defects, and crimes which proceed from people's
abuse of liberty. Other faults of these false
teachings have been pointed out before.
3. Yet there are others, who recognize God
as an infinite, perfect spirit, the Creator of the
universe ; but they do not consider Him as the
26 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
provider of the world, claiming that God, hav-
ing created the world, gave it at the time, once
for always, wise laws, and that he does not any
longer concern Himself immediately about the
world, but, say they, it governs itself by the
laws given to it.
There have been, and there are such people
still, who worship, not one, but many gods, and,
at that, not only good ones, but also evil ones,
which are opposed one to another. To what in-
consistencies does not the fallen reason come,
when left to itself in matters which pertain to
the knowledge of God ! And it thus continues
for many thousand years, and it seems there
will be no end to the disputes, in deciding
the most important questions concerning God
and the world, among the wise ones of this
world ; because to the natural powers and mind
of man there is a fixed limit Take for in-
stance the natural sciences ; i. e., the different
studies about the visible world.
Let man perfect the instruments necessary
for examining the things of this earth ; let him
discover new powers and laws which were not
known to him before; let him enlarge the astro-
nomical lens, and see new starry worlds, — yet
NECESSITY FOR DIVINE REVELATION. 27
in all this he will see only matter with force in
action, although according to wise laws, never-
theless according to laws of necessity; and one
learned man, such as Newton, will pay homage
at the very name of the Creator, while another,
such as Leland, will sacrilegiously declare that
he did not see God, even through the telescope.
What do the sciences say of man? Should we
not take the words of Moses concerning the be-
ginning of the human race as Divinely revealed,
then, for the want of other historical monu-
ments, the beginning of mankind and the first
ages would be covered under darkness of the
perfectly unknown, and there would be no end
to the conjectures and disputes concerning the
beginning of people, the differences of race and
languages, etc.
Further, can the science of the soul explain
and decide these questions : How is the soul
born of the souls of parents? How does the
soul act upon the body ? and how is it that the
soul influences the body ?
God Himself, to ends which are most wise,
has ordered it so that the soul's action upon the
body, and that of the body upon the soul, and
the connection between them, should remain
beyond the reach of our self-conscience. If
28 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
man does not know how it is that the soul influ-
ences the body, then how may he expound and
define the questions, How did the infinite,
Divine Spirit bring forth this visible, material
world? and how does He act upon it? There-
fore the sound reason of nations calls for a
faith, and demands a revealed religion; and
God actually revealed Himself to people, which
for them was and is necessary, as they cannot
attain to such knowledge by their own limited
powers. Amazingly much is the feebleness
of mind in defining the highest questions of
knowledge. No less feeble is the fallen will in
accomplishing good and unselfish works with-
out special help from God. This has always
been recognized by the best representatives of
mankind. St. Paul the Apostle has written:
For the good which I would, I do not; but the
evil which I would not, that I practice. For I
delight in the law of God after the inward
man; but I see a different law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity under the law of
sin. (Bom. vii. 19, 22, 23?) The philosopher
Seneca, who lived in the same age, asks, " What
does it mean? for when we desire one thing, we
are drawn by a something to another." Another
NECESSITY FOR DIVINE REVELATION. 29
learned pagan, Ovidius, of the same century,
has written : " We always strive after that which
is forbidden, desiring the prohibited. I see and
value the better, but I follow the worse." Thus,
as there is a God, it is beyond doubt, also, that
His revelation and help to man, in regard to
the knowledge of the Divine, and in striving
to please God, is necessary, and we have strong
reasons to show that, of all religions, the Chris-
tian belief is the only one true faith, established
by God Himself for the salvation of people; and
the Christian may say with the holy apostle
Paul, / thank my God by Jesus Christ; the
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has
liberated me from the law of sin and death.
(Eom. vii. 25; viii. 2.)
What are the proofs for the Divine character
of the Christian religion? They are of two
kinds. Some are contained in the investigation
of the qualities of the Christian religion. The
Christian doctrine is the purest and most ele-
vated in comparison with the teachings of other
beliefs. In other religions the ideas of God, and
His attributes, and His relations to the world,
are not consistent with sound reason, while
Christians believe in the Lord God as the most
supreme Spirit, with a nature which is most
30 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
perfect, eternal, everywhere present, most wise,
all-knowing, all-powerful, most good, all-holy,
all-just, most blessed. Although there are mys-
teries in the Christian faith, such as are the two
principal ones, namely, the tuinity of persons in
One, of the same Godhead, and the incarnation
of the Son of God, which are in most part incom-
prehensible to the mind; of course it is natural,
as God in His substance is incomprehensible;
yet they do not contain, in themselves, anything
which is contrary to sound reason, but have
sides that our mind understands. The Christian
doctrine of the future life and the resurrection
is also pure and elevated.
The moral law of the Christian religion is so
perfect and exalted, that nothing more could be
added to it. In regard to God, the law of Christ
commands a filial love, which may prompt even
the self-sacrifice of one's life for the glory of
God, if needs be. Jesus Christ has given us a
commandment, by which we are obliged to have
a complete love toward our neighbor : Love your
enemies, bless those who curse you, and pray
for those who do wrong to you and persecute
you, that you may be the children of your
heavenly Father. (Matt. v. 44, 45.) This is
my commandment, that you love one another,
NECESSITY FOR DIVINE REVELATION. 31
as I have loved you. (John xv. 2.) And Christ
died for people, when they were sinners, — ene-
mies of God. Finally, in regard to themselves,
the law of Christ teaches that Christians must
be humble, patient, self-sacrificing.
Still, the proof of the truth of religion because
of its elevated teaching about God and the future
life, and because of the purity of its moral law, is
not yet the final decision, because even the most
exalted teaching may be taken as the invention
of man.
The most certain and definite proofs of the
Divine character of a faith are the immediate
testimonies of God Himself that the belief is
true. The testimonies, therefore, must be reve-
lations of a supernatural order, such as the
manifestation of the Deity, prophecies, and gen-
uine miracles. When God Himself appears to
mankind, saying that this faith is the true one,
or tests its truth by miracles, then, of course, we
may not doubt it.
But, in other pagan religions, there have been,
and yet may be, revelations, prophecies, and mir-
acles worked by evil spirits; therefore the reve-
lations of God, prophecies and miracles also,
may not be, as it appears, sure proofs. In this
instance, attention must be given to the power,
and majesty, and character of the miracles.
32 PEEACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
Not being able to deny the miracles of Christ,
the Pharisees — His enemies — said that He
worked miracles, and even cast out devils, by
the power of a higher evil spirit. But the Lord
answered them, that the kingdom which is
divided in itself cannot stand. He cast out thou-
sands, or legions, of demons at once. Moreover,
He worked such miracles which could not be
performed by evil spirits.
When he gave sight to him that was born
blind, the Jews, quarreling among themselves,
said: Can the Devil open the eyes of the blind ?
(John x. 21.) Some of the Pharisees themselves
said: A sinful man cannot work such miracles.
Finally, the Lord resurrected the dead, and
He Himself rose from the dead and ascended
into heaven.
Secondly, where the evil spirits act, there the
teaching concerning God is impure, for it is
polytheism (like the pagans have) or pantheism,
and the moral teaching is defective.
The evil spirits have succeeded in bringing
people to deify sins and passions. The ancient
nations had gods of wine, adultery, theft, and
other hideous things. Therefore, two kinds of
witnesses together are necessary; a faith is true,
Divinely revealed, which, in the first place, is
THE NECESSITY FOR DIVINE REVELATION. 33
holy, pure, and exalted, and opposed to evil
spirits, and which, secondly, is proved by reve-
lations and miracles, and by miracles noted for
their great power, and of which there are none
in other religions; moreover, such ones which
put the evil spirits to shame, being driven out of
places in which they have ruled.
But, as miracles chiefly demonstrate the truth-
fulness of a faith, as they serve as witnesses for
God Himself, and as unbelievers use all means
to overthrow them, it is necessary, therefore, to
set our attention upon them as proofs of the
Divine character of the Christian religion.
In regards to Divine testimonies or miracles,
no religion on earth may compare with Chris-
tianity. Miracles, witnessing to the heavenly
origin of the Christian faith, come from the
very beginning of the human race down to our
time.
During 5,500 years — the time of the Old Tes-
tament— mankind has been preparing — being
educated through supernatural revelations and
miracles — to receive the Divine Organizer of
our faith. Time will not permit to numerate
the miracles of ancient times. Just now we
regret that we cannot give, as we should, special
attention to the great number of Old Testament
34 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, as applying
directly to His person. The miracles of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which He worked Himself,
have been explained to you on many occasions,
and in the future, no doubt, they will continue
to be a live source for exhaustless themes of
instruction.
We hope to be granted the privilege to explain
for you, in a short while, other proofs, demon-
strating the truthfulness of the gospels, and
finally, with God's help, we will consider Ortho-
doxy as a sacred distinction in the midst of many
Christian professions.
There are such people among Christians who
are ashamed of miracles. Such Christians are
ashamed of and deny Christ Himself; and He
Himself will renounce them before His heavenly
Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ, during His life
on earth, has often pointed to miracles as to
clear and definite proofs of His Divine mission.
While John the Baptist was confined in
prison, he sent two of his disciples, for their as
well as our benefit, to question Jesus: Art thou
He that cometh, or look we for another? And
Jesus answered them, Go and tell John the
things which ye do hear and see: the blind
receive their sight, and the lame walk, the
NECESSITY FOR DIVINE REVELATION. 35
lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and
the dead are raised up, and the poor have
good tidings preached to them; and blessed
is he, whosoever shall find none occasion for
stumbling in me. (Matt. xi. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.)
At another time he said to the Jews, who
believed not in him, but among whom there
were many who recognized John the Baptist as
a saint: i" have witness which is greater than
John's; the works which the Father hath given
me to fulfill, these same works which I do, bear
witness of me, that I was sent by the Father.
(John v. 36; x. 38.)
St. John, the Forerunner of Christ, was not
granted the power to work miracles, no doubt
because the light of Christ must shine for a
dark world the clearer of itself.
Many, says St. John the Apostle, came to
Jesus and said, that John hath done no miracle.
(John x. 41.)
Of His followers our Lord said, in the last
conversation with His disciples: Believe me
that I am in the Father, and the Father in
me: or else believe me for the sake of the very
works. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
believeth on me, the works that I do shall he
do also; and greater works than these shall
36 PREACHING IN THE CUSSIAN CHURCH.
he do: because I go unto the Father. (John
xiv. 11, 12.)
And before His ascension into the heavens He
said to the apostles: These signs shall follow
them that believe: in my name shall they cast
out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
they shall take up serpents, and if they drink
any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them;
they shall lay hands on the sicky and they shall
recover. (Mark xvi. 17, 18.)
O Lord ! we are unworthy that Thy wonderful
powers be made manifest upon us, as they have
been and still do exhibit themselves through
Thy saintly followers. Increase our faith in
Thy works, which Thou hast performed for our
salvation, and in the miracles of Thy saints.
Set us aright, O Lord! and save us. Amen.
THE AUTHENTICITY AND TKUTHFUL-
NESS OF THE GOSPEL.
AS YOU are aware, we have the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ in the four books
of the holy evangelists : Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John. Whole libraries of books sprung
up, as it were, from under the pens of the most
eminent scholars of the world in defense of the
authenticity of our accepted gospel. Volume
upon volume may, and in fact are, still being
written, in proof of the truthfulness of the expo-
sition we have of the work and teaching of our
Lord Jesus Christ as laid down in the gospel.
Even the heathen with their dark histories and
mysterious traditions have contributed to ex-
plain from more than one side the hope of the
nations, the glory of Israel, the light of the
world. If you are truly educated and take inter-
est in this special line of study, you can freely
make these investigations for yourself.
Unfortunately some who are affected with un-
belief undertake the investigation of the gospel,
38 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
and the narratives about the miracles of Jesus
Christ, with the express purpose, not of learn-
ing the truth, but in order to denounce them.
These few persons, (whose minds in every case
were not intended by na'ture to be critical) are
predetermined and have their minds previously
biased with a false philosophy, so that, accord-
ing to their fixed logic, there can be no miracles;
therefore they must be overturned by all pos-
sible means, and they have used everything
within reach of their power against them, but
they could gain no results.
Some of the unbelievers in miracles acknowl-
edge that the gospels were written by the apostles
themselves, or from the words of the apostles, as
the church believes, while others contend that
the gospels, although they bear up the names of
the apostles and their disciples, were not written
by themselves, but by others, who lived later.
If the apostles themselves have written the
gospels and described the miracles of Jesus
Christ, then the unbelievers may yet have these
two explanations for doing away with miracles.
First — the apostles have agreed among them-
selves to preach and to write falsehood. But it
cannot be possible that the apostles should alone
agree to do such a thing, because many Chris-
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 39
tians who lived in their time would also have
to acknowledge and preach the untruth. They
could not attempt such a daring falsity, because
they would be accused by the contemporaries of
Jesus Christ; and why should they agree to such
a thing, when — for their preaching Christ —
nothing else but sorrow awaited them on earth?
Besides this God would punish them in the
future life for the falsehood — especially in such
an important matter. If we only in this life
hope in Christ, then we are the most unfortu-
nate of all people — thus writes St. Paul the
Apostle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. xv: 15. 19).
Secondly — some other unbelievers contended
that the apostles did not understand the works
of Jesus Christ, and that which was not miracu-
lous, but natural, yet remarkable, in the life of
Christ, they received as the miraculous. Never-
theless, the healing of the blind, the deaf, the
lame and other incurables, even at an invisible
distance, only by a word; the changing of the
water into wine, the walking upon the sea, the
feeding of five thousand people with five loaves,
the raising of the dead, His own resurrection,
and the ascension into heaven — these are such
deeds, which nohow can be explained in a natu-
ral way, and is it impossible to be mistaken in
40 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
such like miracles. This "mistaken explana-
tion" has been cast aside by the unbelievers
themselves.
What has been mentioned thus far is not itself
the defense of the Gospel, for you must under-
stand that no human fortifications are necessary
to the Divine Truth of the Almighty. We have
been simply reminded that proofs of the authen-
ticity of the gospel do exist, and that they are
the expression of human thought and energy in
man's effort to collect his fellow beings and be
at one with Christ and God. Although the
Almighty maketh His angels spirits, and His
servants a fiery flame, yet for our benefit in
His love He rewards our efforts with His assist-
ance, and bestows our outreaching arm with
the sanctity of Divine authority. It is in this
way that we have a most sure defense for Divine
things in our human arguments — when they are
set forth with love for the salvation of our
neighbor.
The proofs of the truthfulness of the Gospel
are these: 1. The large number of foretypes in
the Old Testament, and the prophecies of the
Patriarchs and Prophets during 5000 years be-
fore the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, both of
which are so distinct and connected with his-
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 41
torical facts well known to the whole world.
These apply directly to the person of Jesus
Christ the Messiah and also to our times, i. e.
of the New Testament. A careful examination
of the proofs under this single head is sufficient
to convince a sincere seeker of the truth to em-
brace the gospel and become a Christian.
2. Second come the testimonies contained in
all the books of the New Testament. Besides
the four Evangelists there were others who
labored in putting the Word of God into writ-
ing; namely, the Apostles Sts. James, Peter,
Jude and Paul. The harmony throughout these
Scriptures is indeed marvelous. It is the prac-
ticed reader alone who knows how to appreciate
the beauty of God's power operating in so many
different characters, at different places, in dif-
ferent times and under different circumstances.
3. This proof of the truthfulness of the gospel
is that influence, which only a subjective
analysis of the individual life can disclose.
You hear it in church in the hymns sung by
the choir. Sometimes children see it in the face
of their parents and feel it in the presence of
their teachers. The penitent criminal speaks of
it within the walls of a prison. The Christian
soldier glories in it while he falls bleeding.
42 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
Sometimes the ruler obeys its influence. The
mechanic, the merchant likewise pass by its
way. The poor widow puts her trust in it when
she reads the Bible while surrounded by her
hungry children. The dying sleep reposing in
the gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Another proof in defense of our subject is
the history of the world. The history of each
civilized nation, every legal tribunal of justice,
all of the renowned universities of the earth, all
of the societies and communities which have a
strong hope for ultimate moral progress, the
present condition of the family, the advance-
ment of womanhood, the fine critical arguments
of the politician, the pride of universal litera-
ture, the axiom of science, the investigation of
the past, the examination of the present, the
cheerful hopefulness of the serious and busy
foundation builders of the future, even the glory
of music and art, in all this we see traces of the
gospel of Jesus Christ Moreover it is acknowl-
edged by the world, as plain as black and white,
that the teaching of the New Testament is be-
coming rapidly more and more the inseparable
companion to sober, thinking mankind. Thus
we have a real objective evidence, moulding
history before our very eyes, to the proof of the
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL 43
truthfulness of the Gospel. Long hours of dis-
cussion might be devoted to each one of these
four witnesses of the Gospel separately. But
you cannot bear with them. If I should under-
take the gigantic task I would not be able to
finish it. '
5. There is yet a fifth argument in favor of
Christians. Although the last, it is by no means
the least of them. This division contains the
testimony of eye-witnesses and their corre-
spondence with contemporaries, and other lit-
erary monuments of the first centuries of our
era. Upon such important evidence we shall
dwell now for a few moments.
In the libraries of Europe, as well as in the
libraries of the Eastern churches, such as Con-
stantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria,
Syria, Egypt, Georgia, Armenia, Mt. Athos,
Servia, and also Russia, not a few of the manu-
script gospels of ancient times have been pre-
served to our day. Some of them belong to the
fourth century (i. e. They are almost 1600 years
old). They are the same gospel that we have
to-day. They describe the same miracles that
we know of, and as our sacred scriptures have
been copied from these books, so have they been
in turn copied from books which were carefully
44 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
and even jealously guarded — as we learn from
immutable history — of the third, then of the
second century, and the original books of the
holy Apostles and their celebrated companions.
The works of the renowned and learned Origen,
who wrote his commentaries on the gospels of
Matthew, Luke and John in the third century,
and in which the text of the same gospels is
almost completely contained. Origen flourished
in the first half of the third century, and be-
sides this we have the writings of many fathers
of the church and other Christian workers be-
longing to the third century, which contain a
great many quotations from the gospels that
agree with ours, and concerning the miracles of
Jesus Christ. Therefore there can be no doubt
that our Gospel is the same which was read in
the third century.
The same must be said of the second half of
the second century, after the birth of Christ.
We have such works and publications of fathers
and Christian writers belonging to this period,
in which we find many places of the gospels.
We will point to the ten books against heresy,
which belong to the reverend martyr Irenaeus,
the Bishop of Lyons. These books were written
150 years after the ascension of our Lord, and
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 45
the unbelievers themselves do not doubt that
Ireneeus is the author of them. In these books
there are 400 quotations taken from the four gos-
pels, and they come in the same order in which we
read them to-day. The texts mentioned refer to
the same miracles of Jesus Christ. There are
80 quotations taken from the gospel of St. John.
St. Irenseus speaks of the evangelists by name,
and he gives historical information in regard to
the gospels, which they have written. He af-
firms that the church, which was spread widely
in his time, held no more nor less than the four
gospels, as there are four sides of the earth, four
winds, as the Lord appeared to the prophet
Hezekiel, sitting upon four cherubim. Many
places from the gospels are mentioned also by
contemporary writers, such as Tertulianus,
Clement, of Alexandria, and others, so that, upon
this literature, which has come down to us from
these Christian men of the second half of the
second century, and which belongs to them
without a doubt, the contents of the four
gospels known to us could be restored. It is
acknowledged by students that in the last half of
the second century there has been a translation
into the Syrian from the Greek language, not
only of the four gospels, but also of other books
fo the New Testament known to us.
46 PREACHING IN THE BUSSIAN CHURCH.
We have positive witness in the writings of
the disciples of the apostles or their contempo-
raries, who decidedly ascribe the gospels to the
authorship (of course from the human side) of
the apostles, or to the disciples of the apostles,
as is recognized by the whole church.
The first witness is St. Polycarp, the reverend
martyr, a disciple of St. John the Divine, and
other apostles. He was Bishop of Smyrna in
Asia. An epistle of St. Polycarp to the Philip-
pians has been handed down to our day. In it
he says: "Any one who does not confess that
Jesus Christ came in the flesh, he is antichrist.
In the epistle of John the apostle and evange-
list it is said: Every spirit which confesseth
not Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh,
the same is not of God, and the same is anti-
christ." Thus, in the first place, this disciple
of St. John the Divine speaks of him as the
evangelist, consequently John has written the
gospel; and, secondly, to quote literally from
the first general epistle of St. John, while this
epistle is perfectly alike in style and thought
with the fourth gospel, it is to verify the apostle
John as the writer of this gospel. We see in
the writings of St. Polycarp indications of the
gospel of Matthew and other books of the
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 47
apostles. The ab6ve mentioned epistle of St.
Polycarp to the Philippians is acknowledged as
originally belonging to him by the most reason-
able of learned investigators. That St. Poly-
carp has written this epistle to the Philippians,
to this his disciple testified, the above mentioned
reverend martyr Irenaeus, and it is difficult to
conceive how the genuine epistle of St. Poly-
carp could have been mutilated or lost and a
false one spread abroad in its place. The epistle
of St. Polycarp from the time since it was writ-
ten has been read in the churches of Asia at
divine service during the first centuries. It was
read even in the fourth century.
Not alone through his writings, but by his
long life and his death, which was that of a
martyr, does St. Polycarp still more testify to
the truth of the gospel.
By the act of God's providence, not only the
apostle John, but also some of the disciples of
the apostles, lived a long life. St. Irenseus,
that great pillar of the structure of proofs, point-
ing out the original gospels, testifies that John
the Evangelist lived to the time of the Emperor
Trajan, who ascended the throne in 98 A. D.,
and died in 117, consequently this apostle either
died in the last two years of the first, or in the
48 PKE ACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
beginning of the second century after Christ.
This testimony of St. Irenaeus, most accurate in
itself, as he was the disciple of Polycarp, who
was a contemporary and disciple of St. John,
yet it is confirmed by many other ancient wit-
nesses, who set the date of the death of John the
Divine in the beginning of the second century.
The reverend martyr Polycarp, the disciple of
the apostles, and especially of St. John, lived to
be about 110 years. He died in 167 A. D. The
disciple of Polycarp, St. Irenaeus, who was
bishop of Lyons, in the country now called
France, was put to death for preaching Christ
in 202.
The gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke
could not be false and appear and be accepted
by all the churches before the close of the first
century, as some unbelievers say, and likewise
the same of the Gospel of John about the year
150, because the immediate disciples of the
apostles would not permit an error, and we
know that St. Polycarp was the leader of all the
churches in Asia until his martyrdom in 167.
It was about 160 A. D. when Polycarp went to
Rome, during the time of Bishop Anecetas, on
account of a dispute concerning the time of
celebrating Easter (or the resurrection of our
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 49
Lord), and therefore he knew the condition of
the churches of the west, as well as of the east.
If a difference of time in celebrating Easter
Sunday was the cause of such a warm dispute,
then what severe quarrels would take place if
some of the churches had perchance accepted
false gospels.
Yet there is not in all the works of the fathers
and the writers of the second and following
centuries so much as the hint of a doubt in
the christian churches, each independent of the
other, concerning the authenticity and correct-
ness of the four gospels. The disciple of Poly carp,
St. Irenseus, who had our four gospels, was also
acquainted with the condition of the churches
of both the east and west; for in the east he was
educated, and in the west he died a bishop. It
must be remembered that both men, St. Poly-
carp and St. Irenseus, ended their life by a
martyr's death for preaching Jesus Christ as
the Son of God and the Savior of the world. St.
Polycarp decided to be burned upon a pile
rather than to renounce Christ.
We repeat that St. John the Divine had other
disciples, but who of course did not live so long
as Polycarp. Nevertheless they could have pre-
vented during the first half of the second cen-
50 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
tury the spreading of any gospels of Jesus
Christ and His miracles, which might not have
agreed with the teachings of the apostles, and
particularly of St. John, with whom they have
been in close relations. History has deposited
for our sake a considerable portion of a letter
written by St. Irenaeus to his friend, one
Florinus, in which he says of a certain heresy :
"Thou has not been taught thus by the
Presbyters who preceded us, and who listei ted
to the apostles personally." From this we may
conclude that Irenaeus and his contemporaries
have in their youth studied not alone by St.
Polycarp, but also by other disciples of the
apostles.
We may add more facts in connection with the
testimony of lrenseus. He was a co-laborer
with and in the episcopate a successor of the
revered martyr Pothinus, the Bishop of Lyons.
in the country of the Gauls, the present Franc-.
Who was St. Pothinus? According to a most
ancient tradition of the Church of Lyons, he
was a native of Asia, a disciple of Polycarp. and
even of the apostles themselves. In the first
half of the second century he came to Lyons
and organized a church, for which he was < >r-
dained a bishop. Fifteen years after his arriya I
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 51
in Lyons, upon his request there were sent
fco his assistance several men from the east, who
were qualified to preach the gospel, and among
whom was the learned St. Irenseus. St. Irenaeus
became a presbyter in Lyons. In 177 St.
Pothinus died in prison during a persecution of
the christians. The year of his death, 177 A. D.,
and his age are clearly certified. In the accounts
of this age of martyrs, recorded by an eye-
witness and preserved in the history of Euse-
bius, it is said of him that he was more that 90
yean old at the time of his death. Therefore
they concluded that he was born in 86 A. D., and
he could have seen the apostle John. There is
no doubt whatever that he was a contemporary,
not only of St. Polycarp, but also of many other
apostolic men, who were disciples of St. John
the Divine.
He could have known men who have seen
other apostles, that died earlier than St. John,
and who labored in preaching the Gospel in
Asia, for instance : St. Philip one of the twelve,
who suffered in Hieropolis during the time of
the Emperor Domitian (81-96) .Thus, Irenseus
could have received in Lyocs likewise — of St.
Pothinus, who was much older than him in age
— accurate information concerning the eastern
52 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
apostolic churches, also of the holy gospels, and
especially of the Gospel of St. John.
Another witness, like St. Polycarp, of the
truthfulness of the Gospel is Papius, the Bishop
of Hieropolis. He is known as the disciple of
the disciples of the Lord. He died about the
year 120, earlier than Polycarp. In his work
known as the Five Books of Explanations of
the Words of the Lord* part of which are
quoted by Eusebius, the historian, he says — on
the testimony of the apostles of Jesus Christ —
that the evangelist Matthew has written the
words of the Lord in the Hebrew language, and
Mark has written from the dictation of the
apostle Peter of what the Lord did and taught.
Later on another portion of the writings of
Papius has been discovered, which proves that
he was acquainted with the Gospel of John.
Besides this, the historian Eusebius, who had
read the writings of Papius, affirms that Papius
took as testimony, words from the first epistle
of John the Divine ; and as this epistle in word
and thought is exactly the same as the gospel
of John, it verifies the fact that John was the
writer of the gospel.
*These original documents have been ciscovered in
Mossoul. The Patriarch of Antioch has recently brought
them to Paris.
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 53
A contemporary of Poly carp and other apos-
tolic men was St. Justin, the martyr and phil-
ospher ; he was profoundly educated and had
written many works, but many of which, un-
fortunately, have not reached us. Two of his
works have come down to us ; they are apologies
in defense of persecuted christians, one of
which was handed to the Roman Emperor
Antoninus Pius about 150 A. D., the other after
some time was presented to the senate of Rome.
The martyr Justin has also put to writing his
dialogue with the learned Jew Triphonus in
defense of Christianity. What is important for
us is the fact that the unbelievers could find
nothing to say against the authenticity of the
writings of St. Justin, the philosopher, and also
the fact that he quotes many places from the
gospels known to us ; from the gospel of
Matthew, beginning from the first chapter up
to the last, there are fifty quotations ; from the
gospel of Luke, about twenty ; from the gospel
of John, more than fifteen places, and he also
makes mention of another gospel (i. e. of Mark.)
He gives the proper name of evangelia to the
gospel, and also mentions them as the remem-
brances or memory notes of the apostles and
their companions.
CTNIVERSIT^
54 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
To return again to witness concerning the
evangelist John, it is stated as certain that he
spent the last years of his life in Ephesus ;
here he died and was buried, as Policratus, the
Bishop of Ephesus, who lived in the last part
of the second century, writes in his letters to
Victor, the Bishop of Borne ; ancient literature
has saved the contents of this letter. Moreover
the Church Universal has always recognized
this fact.
As St. Polycarp had for his disciple the
reverend-martyr Ireneeus, a great witness for
the evangelical truth, so had the holy martyr
Justin a disciple in the person of Tacian, a wit-
ness of the four gospels. He was a learned
pagan, who studied ancient philosophy, but not
having found the truth, he turned himself to
the Christian Church. He was already a full
grown man when he became a pupil of St.
Justin in Borne, after which he continued in
close friendship with him. After the death of
Justin he went to the east, and in Syria, unfor-
tunately absorbed in meditation, he attached too
weighty importance to his own reasoning and
fell in heresy. He died about 175 A. D. Of
his many works there came down to us but one
oration, which is lengthy, and it is against the
THE AUTHENTICIRY OF THE GOSPEL. 55
Hellenes or pagans, in defense of Christianity.
What is especially important, Tacian compiled
a summary on the ground of the four gospels,
and which he briefly named Of the Four (Dia-
tessaron). As this gospel was compiled liter-
ally according to the four gospels accepted by
the church, it was in use among a considerable
portion of orthodox christians in the east for a
long time for its briefness, and also for less
difficult labor in copying, it was preferred to the
complete four gospels. Theodoretos, the Bishop
of Cyra, during the first part of the fifth
century found more than 200 copies of this
gospel in his diocese. He found nothing in
them which did not agree with the universally
accepted gospels, only that Tacian has omitted
the geneology of Jesus Christ and the account
of his birth according to the flesh from the seed
of David. In its place Theodoretos distributed
the original four gospels, and thereby weakened
the memory of Tacian's sad case of heresy.
From all the above mentioned it is clear that
St. Justin, the teacher of Tacian, had accepted
the original four gospels, no more and no less,
as the church at first authorized, including of
course the gospel of St. John. This assertion
is strengthened by the canon of New Testament
56 PEEACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
books, which has come down to us, and which
has been in use in the church of Rome during
the time of St. Justin. This canon was dis-
covered and published by the learned Muratori.
The first part and the end have been lost ; it
commences thus : " the third book is the gospel
according to Luke." Briefly commenting upon
this gospel, the writer of the canon continues :
"the fourth of the gospels is John's, one of the
disciples," and briefly telling about the writing
of this gospel by John the Divine, he goes on,
making mention of the book of the ''Acts of the
Apostles," written by the holy evangelist Luke.
There is no doubt that the first two gospels in
the Roman church were those of Matthew and
Mark, which were known at the close of the
first century to the apostolic disciple, Papius,
the Bishop of Hieropolis. The Gospel of
Mark itself was written by him on the request
of the Roman christians ; for this we have the
testimony of St. Clement of Alexandria, a
learned man of the second century ; a proof of
this is also the gospel itself, which contains a
considerable number of Roman words.
Soon after the death of Pius the first, during
the time of his successor, Bishop Anecetas,
about 160 A. D., as we have mentioned before,
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 57
the aged Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna, a
disciple of St. John and other apostles, came to
Rome on account of a dispute concerning the
time of celebrating the day of the resurrection
of our Lord, which had arisen between the
churches. „And, of course, it was necessary to
turn to the gospels while speaking about this
subject. If the Gospel of St. John, undoubtedly
held by the Roman church at the time, was not
authentic, St. Polycarp would surely bring the
case forward, and a dispute would have arisen
concerning this Gospel, or the Roman church
would have excluded it from the list of New
Testament books, but there was no such pro-
ceeding ; consequently, the gospel of John
belonged to the apostle himself.
It must be taken into consideration that in
all the works of the apostolical men and other
writers of the first and the earlier part of the
second century there is expressed a clear faith
in Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, who was
incarnate of the Most Holy Virgin on earth,
who worked great signs and miracles, who arose
from the dead and ascended into heaven, and it
is also clearly shown that the christians of this
period had known none other Christ, but Him
who is revealed in the Gospel.
58 PKEACHING IN THE BUSSIAN CHUKCH.
No less important for the proof of our sub-
ject, at least for these careful treasurers of the
truth in the early centuries, is the example of
holy life and also the tradition of the very first
christians, of whom there were more than 500
that had seen Jesus Christ. It was but the
tenth day after our Lord had ascended into
heaven, and when He sent down upon the
church power from the Almighty, that over
three thousand more were added to the fol-
lowers of Him, whom great multitudes of people
on many occasions followed when he walked
upon earth with his twelve, who were them-
selves in their first simplicity rather sceptical
believers of only the real — which could be seen
with the eyes and felt with the hands.
I hope you will bear cheerfully a moment or
two longer, while we bring these testimonies of
ancient literature to a close. Yet, I must admit,
it has been for your sakes, that this subject is
considerably abridged.
About 130 A. D. the holy martyr Codratus,
who was Bishop in Magnesia, was put to death
for his faith in Christ. He was a disciple of
the apostles and a prophet. The reverend-
martyr Codratus is known for his writing which
he handed to the Eoman Emperor Adrian in
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 59
126, in defense of the persecuted christians.
Although this apology has not reached our
times, yet it was read by Eusebius the historian,
who quotes from it the following : u The works
of our Savior (writes Codratus to the Emperor)
have always been manifest, because they were
truthful. Those whom He healed and resur-
rected from the dead were visible — not only
when He healed and resurrected them, but
always. They lived not only during His life
on earth, but remained considerably longer
after he left us ; some of them have lived to our
day," i. e. to the time between 80-90 A. D.,
when Codratus was in the prime of life.
In support of this investigation we bring for-
ward historical facts, and when such come from
heretics or even unbelievers, they are the more
valuable, as the work is shown thereby to be
impartial, and the Divine to be above the need
of a human justification.
Thus, another heretic, Valentine by name,
boasted that he had received his teaching from
Theodala, a disciple of the apostle Paul.
Valentine preached in Egypt between 120-130.
He settled in Rome about 140 A. D. According
to the testimony of Iraeneus and Tertullianus,
writers of the second century, Valentine had
60 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
made use of the whole of Sacred Scriptures.
In the book of St. Irseneus against heresy, not
only many parts of the gospels are mentioned,
but also quotations from the holy apostle Paul,
which were perverted by the unorthodox ex-
planations of the Valentinians. The reverend-
martyr Ippolitus ascribes to Valentine these
words : "all the prophets and the law speak
through Demiurgus, the god of non-reason."
Therefore the Savior saith : "all who came before
me, the same were thieves and outlaws" Now
this text is found only in the gospel of St. John.
It is known also that Heracleon, a disciple of
Valentine, had written a commentary on the
gospel of John, considerable parts of which
have been perserved in Origen's commentary
on the gospels. Heretics as well as others,
who lived in the second century, would not
have accepted of the church the gospel, more-
over a false one, if their founders and teachers
who lived in the time of the apostlic men, were
not firmly convinced of its authenticity. St.
Ireneus in the second half of the second
century wrote thus : "Our gospels are strongly
established" even heretics become their witness;
quoting from which they expect to uphold their
doctrine. Heresy, which began to show itself
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 61
so early among christians, was the cause never-
theless why the first bishops and other leaders
of the churches kept so diligent a watch over
the gospels in their original completeness, and
guarded them from any and all mutilation,
which some of the heretics attempted, but of
which they were accused in good season.
Only recently, in a responsible magazine
published in the eastern metropolis of America,
October 28, 1899, the profoundly learned Pro-
fessor William 0. Winslow, D. D., D. C. L.,
L. L. D. writes : "Among the papyri discov-
ered at Behnesa by the Egypt Exploration
Fund is a fragment of the Gospel of St. John,
which proves to be of the highest importance
and deepest interest. It antedates all our pre-
viously known texts by one hundred years or
more. Our associates have now completed
their critical study of the text, and a fac-simile
of it will appear in our volume about ready for
the press, with a great many documents of the
first century translated. The papyrus of the
first chapter of St Matthew (A. D. 150), cor-
roborating our version of St. Matthew 1: 18-21,
and the Logia (New Sayings of Christ) were in
book form. This fragment of St. John is also
in book form.
b4J PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
It has been assumed that the form of writing
in a book or codex dated from the introduc-
tion of vellum ; but the foregoing and like dis-
coveries by the Fund show that such fashion
was in use for christian literature of the earliest
times.
The St. Matthew and Logia fragments are in
single leaves, but the papyrus of St. John is on
a sheet, and is written upon both sides. More-
over, the first leaf contains St. John I., and the
second leaf St. John XX. in part ; so that we
possess one of the outer sheets of a large quire
between which and chapter XX. were the in-
tervening eighteen chapters, now lost. This
book of the Gospel contained about fifty pages.
It is to be noted that the usual contractions
for theological words like God, Jesus, Christ,
and Spirit are used. If such contractions were
familiar in the second century, they must have
been introduced much earlier. Do they not
show the existence of a christian literature as
early as 100 A. D. ?
The text, a small uncial, resembles that of
the Codex Sinaiticus, to which variants of its
own are added. But the fac-simile will reveal
this and other characteristics to the scholar
who sees our coming volume, and the christian
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL. 63
public will be deeply interested in the publica-
tion of a text containing the statement, 'The
Word Was Made Flesh,' which words were
accepted in the early morning of Christianity as
very truth. Out of Egypt have I called my
Son may be transliterated for to-day: 'Out of
Egypt comes the proofs for the Bible as God's
revelation to man.' "
Christianity is not so much in danger of a so-
called "learned unbelief," as it is of the "little
faith" and practical unbelief in active life, and
the spreading of unchristian habits and cus-
toms, and in danger from the life even of
christians, which is not according to the gospel.
Many, Oh many so-called christians of our
times are in need of having their hearts renewed,
and deeply impressed with the words of the
Savior "repent and believe in the gospel."
THE TKUE CHURCH OF CHRIST *
WHAT is the Orthodox Church? The
Orthodox Church is a body or commu-
nity of people, who, 1 — correctly believe in divine
revelation; and 2 — who obey a lawful hierarchy
instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ himself,
through the holy apostles. In order to belong
to the Orthodox Church two principal con-
ditions are required: First — to accurately ac-
cept, rightly understand and truthfully confess
the divine teaching of faith; and secondly —
to acknowledge the lawful hierarchy or priest-
hood, to receive from it the holy mysteries or
sacraments, and generally to follow its precepts
in matters concerning salvation.
Let us now consider the question concerning
the true and divine doctrine of holy faith.
The divine teaching of our holy religion is
contained in the books of the holy scriptures of
the Old and the New Testaments, and in holy
Tradition. The principal dogma (these truths),
*Tbe author is indebted for assistance in compiling the
purely theological portions of these papers to the works
of the M. Rev Dr. Sergius, Archbishop of Vladimir,Russia.
THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 65
i. e. the sacramental ones, ( which may also be un-
derstood as the theoretical) are laid down briefly
in the "creed," which commences with these
words: I believe in one God, the Father, and
which was compiled by the holy fathers of the
first two universal councils in the fourth cen-
tury. The moral truths of the orthodox faith
are contained chiefly in the Ten Command-
ments given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai
which were completed and explained by our
Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel and especially in
the Lord's Sermon on the Mount.
The doctrine, which does not agree with the
true understanding of holy scripture and holy
tradition, which is preserved in the Orthodox
Catholic Church from the apostles time, is
termed heresy; translated from the Greek
language this word signifies separation. Cer-
tainly it is to be understood that such who sepa-
rate or draw others away from the body of the
church by false teaching, thereby they excom-
municate themselves from her fold.
Heresy, or injury to the teaching of Christ,
has begun as early as the times of the apostles.
St. Paul wrote to Titus, who was bishop on the
island of Crete: "A man that is a heretic after
a first and second admonition refuse, knowing
that such a one is perverted, and sinneth, being
66 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
self condemned." ( Titus iii : 10, 11 ) . The holy
apostle Paul has written to the Corinthian
Christians thus : "For there must be also here-
sies among you, that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you." 1 Cor. ix:
19. The bishops, as the successors of the
apostles, endeavored from the earliest times to
transmit the teaching of Christ, which they re-
ceived from the apostles accurately. Thus our
faith was carefully, even to the letter, trans-
mitted by tradition. It is plainly understood
how holy tradition became a channel by which
truths were conveyed to rising generations, as
the first bishops themselves received the word
and also necessary instructions from the
apostles, not only in writing, but also orally;
i. e. by word, face to face; therefore it is clear
that this apostolic tradition was in itself an ex-
planation of the holy scriptures, as it were — a
supplement. In regard to holy writ the bishops
were careful that no false books be counted in
with the genuine collection, which was left by
the apostles, and also that the original writings
of the apostles themselves be not injured or
marred by heretics through the least addition or
omission to the text of holy scripture. And
if a false teacher be found his teachings was at
THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 67
once examined by the bishops, and they de-
clared before the Church universal that such and
such a doctrine was not known to them, that
they did not receive it from the apostles, and
that it did not agree with the doctrine of the
apostles. Heresy caused the gathering of local
and general councils, in which the false teach-
ing was compared with the holy scripture and
tradition and then rejected. In course of time
the apostolical tradition, which was transmitted
orally at first, was gradually, as the necessities
of the church demanded, committed to writing;
and it is found in the works of the holy fathers
and teachers of the first several centuries.
Although all heretics, whoever they be, do not
belong to the church, yet, judging from the
character of their false teaching, some are nearer
to her, while others are greatly separated from
her, and therefore the church receives into her
communion the repentant heretics differently;
namely — by three distinct offices during public
worship. These offices were formulated in the
time of the general councils. If we are spared
we shall in some future time explain these of-
fices, and also what differences and contradic-
tions there are in the heresies themselves. Now
we continue to briefly review the orthodox faith.
68 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
The principal dogma of our religion are these :
1 — The doctrine of God as He is in His being;
one God in substance, but in three persons; the
trinity consubstantial and undivided; the Father
unoriginate; the Son begotten of the Father be-
fore all ages; and the Holy Ghost, who proceeds
from the Father. 2 — The doctrine of the Son
of God, as the Savior of the human race; the
second person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Son
of God, who was incarnate for our salvation of
the Most Holy Virgin Mary, who suffered and
died in the flesh, arose again; ascended into the
heavens, and he shall come again to judge the
living and the dead. 3 — The doctrine of the
Holy Ghost, as the sanctifier and perfecter of
the salvation of mankind; that He is sent on
earth by the Father for the merits of Jesus
Christ, and abides in the holy, Catholic and
apostolic church, preserves in her the orthodox
teaching of faith unimpaired and saves the faith-
ful chiefly by means of the holy mysteries (or
sacraments), regenerating, enlightening, edify-
ing and strengthening in the spiritual life.
Upon these truths are founded also the other
dogma of the christian religion; viz: That of
the Mother of God,* the veneration of the
* See the author's Eitnal, Services and Sacraments of
the Eastern Apostolic Church.
THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 69
saints of God, sacred images, the administra-
tion of the church, etc.
We have already learned that the true con-
fession of faith by itself is not sufficient for
salvation. Of necessity another condition is
required to belong to the Orthodox Church, and
that is the recognition of a lawful hierarchy
(or priesthood), the reception of sacraments
from the same hierarchy, and obedience to it in
matters concerning salvation. In a com-
munity of christians in which there is no law-
ful bishop, who is the dispenser of the gifts of
saving grace,there are no sacramental gifts of the
Holy Ghost, there can be no mystery of the body
and blood of Christ, and where the Holy Ghost
and Christ are not present, who sacramentally
abide in christians, there, of course, can be no
church. Sacred scripture testifies to this very
decidedly.
Let us turn our attention to the eighth chap-
ter of the Acts of the Apostles. What do we
read there? At the time when a great persecu-
tion arose against the church in Jerusalem aud
the holy archdeacon Stephen was stoned to
death, then the christians, excepting the
apostles, scattered in different places of Judea
and Samaria. The deacon Philip, who came
70 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
into the city of Samaria, preached Christ there.
The people with one heart gave heed to what
Philip said, seeing the miracles which he
worked; for the unclean spirits came out of
many; some they left" with wild cries, and many
who were impotent and lamed became whole.
And there was great joy in that city. There
was a man in that place, one Simon by name,
who before this practiced sorcery and con-
founded the people of Samaria, giving himself
out as some one great. Many followed him,
saying that he had the power of God. But
when they believed Philip, who spoke to them
of the good tidings of the kingdom of God and
of the name of Jesus Christ, they received bap-
tism of him, both men and women. And so did
Simon believe, and after being baptized he re-
mained with Philip, and, seeing the great
powers and signs which were manifested, he
wondered. The apostles, who were in Jerusa-
lem, having heard that Samaria received the
word of God, sent to them Peter and John, who,
having come, prayed over them thai^hey might
receive the Holy Ghost, and laying their hands
upon them they received the Holy Ghost.
Upon seeing that, by the laying on of the
apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given,
THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 71
Simon brought them money, saying: Give me
this power, that upon whomsever I lay my
hands the same will receive the Holy Ghost.
But Peter said unto him : Thy silver perish
with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain
the gift of God with money. Thou has neither
part nor lot in this matter.
From this history it can be seen that during the
time of the apostles there were grades in the
hierarchy. Philip, who was one of the seven dea-
cons, notwithstanding that he received grace
for the office of a deacon from the apostles, not-
withstanding that by the Holy Ghost, who was
with him, he performed many great works, yet
he could not bring down the Holy Ghost upon
the Samaritans, whom he had baptized. But
when the apostles Peter and John had come
they prayed and laid their hands upon them.
Then the Holy Ghost came down upon them
and was manifested in signs and miracles. The
apostles transmitted the power of conferring
the Holy Ghost only to the bishops. In other
parts of the same book of the Acts of the Apos-
tles, and in the epistles of St. Paul to Timothy,
the Bishop of Ephesus, and to Titus, the Bishop
of Crete, there are plain statements pertaining
to the grade or office of presbyter, which is a
72 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
middle oDe, between the episcopate and dia-
conate.
Which hierarchy is the true and lawful one?
It is the priesthood which had retained, and
continued to follow these conditions.
1 — In the first place such a hierarchy is true,
which received the grace of the Holy Ghost
from the apostles themselves in an unbroken
line of succession from one to another. If, for
instance, in a certain locality the bishops and
priests were found to be wanting, the succes-
sion being broken, and in their absence the
laity elected new ones and lay their hands upon
them, and proclaimed them to be bishops and
presbyters, such a hierarchy would be unlaw-
ful and without grace, as the laity cannot
transmit that which they do not possess them-
selves— the grace of the priesthood. In the
time when the erring church of Eome was the
cause of the Protestant separation in the six-
teenth century, there was not a bishop in any of
the countries that sided with them, excepting in
England alone,* where protestantism appeared
later than in Germany. The Protestants com-
menced to elect and establish presbyters them-
* Individually we have not the power to assert that
the Church of England has retained all the conditions
whereby she may not be an erring branch of the Catholic
Church.
THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 73
selves, and these ministers not only baptize,
but they officiate at a so-called communion
service, which of course is not a valid sacra-
ment, as the ministers have no apostolic ordi-
nation, and they are not presbyters.
As we learn from history, it is only such a
hierarchy which is authentic — that received
the grace of the priesthood from the Lord
Jesus Christ's apostles themselves, through an
unbroken succession of the lawful heirs of this
sacrament. And this is necessary. As the
inclination to sin is transmitted successively
from one to another by inheritance in the con-
ception and birth of the body, thus also grace,
that is the power of God, which wipes away sin
and gives strength in struggle with it, for the
merits of the new Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ,
being bestowed, it is transmitted uninter-
ruptedly by the laying on of episcopal hands in
the priesthood, by anointing all christians with
holy chrism, and also through sacred acts and
visible forms in other sacraments.
2. Secondly, an authentic hierarchy is such,
which confesses all the truths of boly religion,
for there are heresies which entirely deprive
bishops and priests of the ministerial grace.
3. Thirdly, a priesthood to be lawful must
74 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
administer the sacraments orderly, according
to the rules of the holy church Catholic, not
changing essential actions, as there are acts and
conditions in the rites of mysteries that are es-
sential, without which a certain sacrament may
not be valid. Should a sacred minister violate
an essential rule he is subject to degradation, if
the violation has been intentional, or, at least,
the mystery is void of power. The seventh
rule of the apostolic canon enjoins: "Should
any one, bishop or presbyter, administer not
three immersions in baptism in commemoration
of the death of the Lord, but one, let him be cast
out." And those who were baptized by one
immersion, it was ordered that they should be
rebaptized. If a priest should consecrate
chrism himself, and anoint the newly baptized
with it, such an act would not be the mystery of
unction with chrism, because it would be the
usurpation of the rights and the power of a
bishop, and such a thing is forbidden presby-
ters by the sixth rule of the Council of Carth-
age. Should a bishop or priests use only water
in place of wine in the mystery of communion,
as some heretics do, such an offering would not
be a true sacrament.
4. Fourthly, to be a lawful and true hierarchy
THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 75
the same must be governed and must govern
its spiritual charge according to the rules of the
holy apostles, the seven ecumenical councils
and other laws which are accepted by the
Orthodox Church in general. Having aposto-
tized from these universal or Catholic church
regulations, the Roman church invented a
doctrine concerning the supremacy of the
Bishop of Rome over all the christian churches.
This has been one of the chief causes of the
Romish schism or separation from the Ortho-
dox Catholic church.
5. A fifth condition necessary for proving the
lawfulness of the priesthood is its unity with
the Orthodox Church in the spirit of peace arnd
love. Whoever destroys the unity, except for
a genuine and important cause, and the bishops
and priests together with christians who follow
them, that separate themselves from the higher
church authorities, are excommunicated from
the church, according to the rules of the
apostles and the canons of the councils.
The Orthodox Church, which is one, is one
spiritual body, animated only by the Holy
Ghost, having only one head — the Lord Jesus
Christ.
The Orthodox Church is holy, not having
76 PEE ACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Ephes. v:
27). She sanctifies sinners by her teaching
and sacraments.
The Orthodox Church is Catholic, i. e. col-
lective, because she was organized by the Lord
Jesus Christ for the salvation of all people in
the whole world, and she is the gathering of all
true believers in all places, times and peoples.
The Orthodox Church will continue on earth
until the second coming of Christ, imperishable
and not conquered by any powers of hell. In
regard to holy doctrine, she is blameless and
will ever remain unchangeable, as she has
abiding in her the Holy Ghost, the spirit of truth,
therefore she is, according to the apostle, a
pillar and the foundation of truth (ITim 3: 15).
The existence of the lawful hierarchy and the
administration of the holy mysteries will never
cease in the church.
The Lord Jesus Christ himself had said: I
will build my churchy and the gates of hell will
not prevail against her} and again : Behold I
am with you alway, even unto the end of ages.
Therefore, it is the duty of the christian to
obey the church, for, outside of her, there is no
salvation. If thy brother neglect to hear the
church, let him be to thee as an heathen man
THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 77
and a publican (Matt, xviii: 17), saith the
Lord.
May God, who is glorified in the Trinity,
help us by His grace to become, through our
membership in the church militant on earth,
members of the church triumphant in heaven,
that we may glorify His all-honorable and
majestic name with the angels and saints for-
ever, without end. Amen.
THE EDUCATION OF CHILDEEN.
WE DESIEE to tell you of some thing,
which is of the utmost importance. We
find it necessary, unfortunately, to repeat in a
measure what has been told you several times.
We speak plainly, without a flourish of words,
because we feel our responsibility before God —
if we be misunderstood. We desire to remind
you of our parish or church- school. To learn
to read and write you send your children to
school. You know that you must do it. But
how many of you think of the serious obligation
of rightly and thoroughly preparing your
children for the life which they must live after
only a few years ? Some, indeed, give their
attention to what they call a decent education
for their children, for which and for whom they
would not fall back of any one, but be as good
and as nice as other people in town. If you
send your children to school to study grammar
and arithmetic, (the future mainstay of the
"home" are often compelled to leave their homes
THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. 79
to learn even cooking and dancing), why will
you not be just as eager to send them to school
where they will study religion ? If you are
truly interested in the welfare of your children,
why do you not watch as strictly, but once a week,
how they attend to their lessons in the study of
the Law of God, as you do in some home-work,
which the children seemed to be forced to have
prepared within the next twelve hours for their
public school ? You must obey God, above the
public and all other masters, or lose your souls
for the responsibility which rests upon you for
the present and future welfare of your children.
Where there is intellect, there always will be
knowledge. Still, you must educate the child.
Teach the boy and girl geography and history ;
but if you do not train the child's will, in order
not only to please you, its parents, but to bend
before the holy will of Him, who is the only
just re warder of good and evil, then you are a
failure as a christian. Where there is no dis-
cipline, there is no constancy. Where there is
no law, there is no order, no peace, no everlast-
ing happiness. If no tender sympathies re-echo
in the heart of the young, away have been cast
the time and labor in teaching — be it botany or
music.
80 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
What a pity ! we see young children at the
age of ten, whose very brains seem to be rattling
with numerical problems, while they have not
the good manners to step out of the way of an
old person, or even the common human feeling
of a desire to aid in distress. I have seen even
young men and young women stand gazing on
one of their company, who was fainting from
exhaustion, without the offer of the most simple
service — to fetch a cup of cold water.
However regular athletic exercises are at-
tended to, no matter how carefully the lessons
in physiology are prepared, little iudeed, will
they profit your children, if they know not the
steps, up which they must climb to seek the
Highest. If you, fathers and mothers, are
christians, then we ministers of the Word may
rest in the quiet hope that your children have
been taught dutifully and rightly to praise the
All-majestic Creator at morn, likewise in midday,
confessing each themselves before God, and
openly before all men, confessing God, while at
night they humbly implore His mercy. But if
your children do not invoke their Guardian-
Angel, if they do not bless the most pure
Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and fall
down in humble devotion, supplicating for the
THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. 81
grace of our Heavenly Father, then you are not
christians.
It is a sad fact, which must be recorded in
this earthly judgment seat of God, and the
truth of this fact is as bitter for me, as it is for
you. Nevertheless, we acknowledge and accept
the truthful bitterness with the hope, that it
will prove to be a healing remedy, which will
bring peaceful and sweet results.
There are parents belonging to our congrega-
tion in San Francisco, who go to the matinee
with their children, not giving a thought before
hand to the character of the play ; they teach
the little ladies and gentlemen, i. e. the future
men and women of a christian land, to buy and
select wearing apparel, which is pleasing to the
eyes of the world, whether it be healthful and
sensible, or not. Yes, they are "up to the
times," they visit the classes of the public
schools ; they receive and fix their signatures
to monthly school reports. Ah! if they would
but fix the character of the school itself. If
their children are tardy for five minutes they may
not go to school without a written excuse. Yet
it is in the power of the citizens of this country
to have laws enacted, which would protect their
youn<* from being crammed with "ologies" and
82 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
"isms," and insure their healthful growth and
the teaching of good sense.
How is it with our church schools? All our
children do not attend, and their friends and
christian neighbors do not take interest enough to
invite them to go with their children. The par-
ents do not visit our school, but once a year, and
then — when we are not at work. What is our
home-work for the children? Only a little of
that which is the greatest. A very little, once or
twice a week, of the commandments of God and
the gospel of his Son, Jesus Christ. And no
one to think about it ; no one at home to see
that the life-work of the family is done! Dur-
ing the short hour that we manage to collect a
few unruly children, we must study and repeat,
for even prayers are not learned in the home.
Beloved christians! we need your co-opera-
tion. We may sow the seed, but — remember —
the influence of your home is the sunshine
which heats the ground. So then ask your-
selves, is not the wind too chilly, and the sun
too low to strike its rays direct? We may trim
the plant, but it is your duty to keep watering it.
Oh ! if you would but water the precious plants
of your gardens with prayerful tears! We
invite you to visit our school, from time to time,
THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. 83
during lesson hours. If we were asked, how
many of us pray together with children, the
conscieutous would answer, a very, very few ;
only several in a congregation of three hundred
souls. Generally, of an evening, the children
are sent to bed ; and sometimes some one calls
out, say your prayers first. And from time to
time there is a prayer, but more often there is
only the "saying." Must I explain that christian
children should be followed to their uight's
rest; in most cases they should be "put" into
bed.
It is the duty especially of parents to see that
their children pray correctly, and also to pray
with them in an audible voice themselves. Let
this not be an act of routine. Do not for a
moment think that it will become a daily
routine. This reasonable discipline, when
you kneel by the side of tender childhood
and see the little ones pray, will lighten
in your own heart — at the same time
that it does in theirs — the fire of heavenly love.
Moreover, your prayers must be the prayers of
the Orthodox Church of Christ. Our Mother
church has but one infallible model of prayer —
given to her by our Lord Jesus Christ. It is an
invocation, petitions, and a doxology ; in other
84 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
words, a call, a request, and a praise. If you
will concentrate your minds upon the subject
of each one of these divisions, then your prayer
will not be a "saying," but an "offering."
Again we ask you to give us your dutiful atten-
tion and assistance in the work of teaching our
children. If not for the sake of your own com-
fort in old age and sickness, let us for the sake
of their Almighty Father in Heaven, and our
Judge, awaken in their hearts the love for that
which is holy and truly beautiful. Amen.
SERMON ON NEW YEAR'S DAY.
Thy Kingdom Come. (Matt, vi: 10).
THE first day of a new year may not be kept
as a holy day and a day of quiet by every
one, as the Church enjoins that it should be, yet
it is a day, nevertheless, peculiarly distinguished
from other days by every thinking man and
woman. New Year's Day is looked upon by
some with that awe, which is always respectful
before the mysterious. For some it has a
strong fascination, which is expressed in their
holiday-making, often bordering on senseless
hilarity. For others it is a short day into
which they vainly strive to encompass eternity,
or even the one year which it represents.
The merry callers, together with the pleasant
entertainers, and the busy crowd of elders, to-
gether with the happy ones of new and young
fortune, cannot hide from us even on New
Year's Day in the great congregation of human
kind those faces that look on us with serious
mien, those eyes of careful thought, that wist-
ful gaze of longing, those eyes that burn with
86 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
a desire. Some of these last named are those
who were, so to illustrate, moulded into an
image of melancholy composure, whom painful
anxiety could not conquer and make of their
rich natures absolute pessimists, by robbing
them of their last hope; and some are those
who have force, power, hidden away down in
their souls, who persevere, quietly abiding their
time, when they may openly and fully cherish
their own desires, satisfy their secret aspira-
tions, and gain the end of their passion — strong
ambition. Some again are the ones who very
nicely put on their back the sheep's skin, but
inwardly they are the ferocious wolf. They take
you with their soft hand, but nothing is left
you; sweetly they look upon you with quiet
eyes, but you find yourself to be lost; they kiss
you, and you are betrayed by Judas. Still we
find among the last mentioned, i. e. of those
with serious and longing mien, such characters
as cannot be influenced aside from the path they
chose for their life walk, either by wealth or by
social happiness, nor can poverty or misery eat
and destroy their individuality. Fame, position,
science, art, comfort and society's opinion call
out to them : To you will I give all this author-
ityt and the glory of them. . . . if you will
SERMON ON NEW YEAR'S DAY. 87
but worship me, it shall be yours. No, to the
mighty ones of this world answer they; is it
right to hearken unto you, rather than unto
God? This little flock of the chosen ones go
steadily along the narrow path. Praising the
Almighty Creator they draw near, and before
the awful presence of the Supreme Being they
pray, without condemnation and with boldness
they dare to say : Father, our Father, who art
in heaven! hallowed be Thy name, Thy king-
dom come, preserve us from the taint of the
world, so that the evil spirit with his passions
and servants may not rule over us; teach us to
worship Thee in the spirit and in the truth,
so that the changing etiquette of a vanishing
sphere, and the vain philosophy of time servers
may not harm nor forbid us to call to Thee:
"Lord, Thy kingdom come."
"I wish you a happy new year." Such is the
universal greeting on this day among friends.
Man salutes man on the first day of a new
year and expresses the hope that the new year
may be a happy one for each. Ah! and so it is
happiness, the aim and end of all, which is the
one thing most desired. That is what chris-
tians ask for when they pray to God: Thy
kingdom come. And it is just for this purpose
88 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
that this altar was built for us. That was the
desire of our fathers, who contemplated over
thirty years ago to organize a parish and have
a house of prayer in this city, and which they
realized, thanks to the christian sympathy of
the holy synod of the Kussian church.
Happiness — that was the mission object of
the apostles, who walked the earth. It was for
our happiness that Jesus Christ came and com-
menced for the whole world and all time a
new and everlasting year. Did not even the
heavens and their spiritual ministers proclaim
it? Yea, face to face and heart in heart, did
Mary encompass it. To Joseph it was in a
dream. It was gloriously indicated to the
learned magicians by a moving star. But for
the peasant on the fields the angels sang. Yes,
for this gift to humankind, for this happiness
of the new year to the world the spiritual
powers of heaven thanked the Lord. They
sang: Glory to God in the Highest, and on
earth peace, good will toward men.
As we to-day commence another period by
which we measure that which we call time, and
as we feel that this time is gliding past us,
flowing swifting beyond our reach, and strip-
ping us, too, of that which we sometimes think
SERMON ON NEW YEAR'S DAY. 89
belongs to our person, we surely ought give
serious thought to the one thing so needful, to
the happiness we wish our friends from year to
year, to the great boon our spirits yearn for,
even though it be on our part sometimes un-
knowingly. Let us renew within us the
faculties of our soul, so overburdened with a
generally prevailing materialism. Let us re-
new within us our hearts, and prepare a clean
habitation for this great gift. Let us strengthen
our desire, once elevated, and let us reach out,
and accept, and follow this great happiness of
God in man! O God, save us from the rule
which our own severally different, irreligious
and selfish opinions create, and from the king-
dom of darkness, and let The kingdom come!
It is often just so with the life of a man as
the traveler of great deserts experiences. He
now is under the hot sun with no water, and
then the cold atmosphere of the night finds him
without a roof. With sore foot and tired eye
he goes along until he comes to an oasis ; the
fresh scene dispels the monotony; his heavy
heart is gladdened. Such an oasis we find even
in the barren hearts of all men of the world;
but not so often, not so fruitful and so refresh-
ing as in the life of an humble and obedient
90 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
believer in the Allguiding Providence of God.
Oh, christians! watch for those bright moments
in your life. Prosper in the real happiness
and shine forth in the darkness of a sinful
world — a light to others. Stop on these green
and fresh pastures. Best. Look over the past
and examine the way. Consider the different
kinds of temptations you underwent. Know
thyself; where were you the weakest? Which
place on the road was it the most difficult to
pass? How have you come out of the battle?
What is it you have lost? Did you gain any-
thing? If so, is it good for your salvation?
Can your neighbor profit by it?
Let us hear Solomon, the wisest of all earthly
born, the richest and greatest king of his time;
let us hear what he says in one of those bright
moments of his life, when he was most fit and
capable to rightly diagnose his self-examination.
He says : "7 have seen all the works that are
done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity
and vexation of Spirit. 1 communed with my
own hearty saying, Lo, I am come unto great
estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all
they that have been before me in Jerusalem;
yea, my heart hath great experience of wisdom
and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know
SERMON ON NEW YEAR'S DAY, 91
wisdom, and to know madness, and folly : I per-
ceived that this also is vexation of spirit. I
made me great works, I builded me houses, I
planted me vineyards. All kinds of trees and
flowers I had in my gardens. I made me pools
of water. I got me servants and maid servants.
I gathered me also silver and gold. I was
great. Also my wisdom remained with me.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands
had wrought, and on the labor that I had
labored to do, and, behold, all was vanity and
vexation of spirit, and there was no profit
under the sun * * * When we read farther
on and come to the close of Solomon's repent-
ant confession, he says: "Let us hear the con-
clusion of the whole matter, fear God and keep
His commandments, for this is the whole duty
of man. For God shall bring every work into
judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be
good, or whether it be evil."
On this New Year's Day, when we look over
the past and see our mistakes, our weakness,
our folly, and our sins, and* when from to-day
we look to the future with renewed hope, wish-
ing as much as ever before — a happy new
year, our good resolutions must be carried out
with a strong will. When we learn to seek our
92 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
happiness in that one thing above all needful;
when we learn to bend our wills to the pleasures
of that Supreme Will, which rules all, then we
will have found the good portion, which shall
not be taken away from us. The Kingdom of
God will have come.
But to some I know this appears to be a hard
saying. It is well to talk about such high
things, but how can we practice a heavenly life
upon earth, they question. Certainly the
thought about earthly things is indispensable to
our earthly life. Do but observe how we
abandon things heavenly, for things earthly,
and we shall find it not so difficult to put aside
earthly things for things heavenly. We limi t
the time we employ in works of charity and
religious practice, in order to have more time
for worldly things. Some times we go into the
Church of God, and at the same time we are
thinking of that which engages our minds at
home and at our business. And some times,
even, while standing bodily in the house of
prayer, our thoughts are attracted elsewhere,
by our worldly affections, or by the passions
which rule in us; even the very prayer of some
is tainted by flitting worldly thoughts ! Now do
the very reverse. Do that which is necessary
SERMON ON NEW YEAR'S DAY. 93
for your earthly existence, but endeavor not to
extend it beyond the necessary, and strive to
liberate yourself as much as possible from such
labor, in order to have more time and freedom
for works of piety. Kestrain your thoughts
from earthly things, not only when standing
before God in His temple, but wherever you
may be, when obliged to busy yourself with
earthly things, occasionally turn away your
thoughts and especially your desires for them,
and lift up your heart unto heaven and God.
When you set about worldly affairs, remember
God, and ask for His blessing and assistance;
when you go to rest, remember God and give
thanks unto Him for His assistance in your
labors, and for the gift of rest.
Thus we may unite every earthly work, not
contrary to the law of God, with a love of things
above, and, so to say, change earthly and visible
things, into things heavenly and spiritual.
When thou lookest upon the sun, said once a
saint, seek the true sun, for thou art blind.
When thou turnest thy gaze upon light, turn
towards thy soul, and see whether thou hast
there the true and blessed light, which is the
Lord.
May the light of our Lord Jusus Christ illu-
94 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
mine, may His Spirit strengthen each of us,
and may our walking according to His Word
and His Life, lead us all here upon earth to set
our affections on things above, and thereby con-
duct us to the blessed contemplation of Him in
heaven, where reigneth supreme the happiness
of all sincere seekers of the true new year.
Amen.
THOUGHTS ON FAST AND TEM-
PERANCE.
MAN, having received his present being,
consisting of a visible body and intel-
lectual, immaterial soul, is a being complex.
But the nature and -worth of both the just
named parts are not of equal value. The body-
is made as an instrument that is moved by the
order of a ruler; the soul is designed to govern
and command it, as the superior of an inferior.
The soul, receiving from the intellect and rea-
son the means by which it makes distinctions,
may, possessing such a quality of distinction,
separate the truly beautiful from its common
imitation; it may perceive God as the Creator
and Designer, not only of that which is under-
neath our feet and received by our senses, but
that, also, which is hidden from the eyes, and
of which the immaterial mind may contemplate,
having the power of imagination at its command.
Practicing, as the godly one, in righteousness
and virtue, she aspires unto divine wisdom, and,
96 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
obeying its laws and commands, withdraws as
much as possible from the desires of the flesh,
comes nearer to God, and strives by all its
strength to ally itself with the good. The
particular and most important object of this
sacred philosophy is temperance; as it is the
mind, which is not disturbed, but free of all in-
fluences of pollution, arising from the stomach
or other senses, that has a continual action and
contemplates the heavenly, the things pertain-
ing to its own sphere.
And so it behooves us, the lovers of all things
pure, the lovers of the word of God, yea — even
christians, to love the present time, which our
holy church has set apart for a special oppor-
tunity of obtaining greater grace in the sight
of God. We should hail with joy such an op-
portunity! The time I refer to is the Advent
Lent. We should love this fast as the teacher
of sobriety, the mother of virtue, the educator
of the children of God, the guardian of the
unruly, the quiet of the soul, the staff of life, the
peace that is firm and serene. Its importance
and strictness pacifies the passions, puts out
the fire of anger and wrath, cools and quiets the
agitation produced by over-eating. And, as in
summer time, when the sweltering heat of the
THOUGHTS ON FAST AND TEMPERANCE. 97
sun hangs over the ground, the northern breeze
proves a blessing to the sufferers, scattering the
closeness by its pleasant coolness, so does like-
wise fast, destroying the overabundance of heat
in the body, which is caused by gluttony. Prov-
ing to be of so much benefit to the soul, Lent
brings the body no less benefit. It refines the
coarseness of matter, releases the body of part
of its burden, lightens the blood vessels that
are often ready to burst with an overflow of
blood, and prevents them becoming clogged,
which may happen as easily as it occurs with a
water pipe, that, when being forced to maintain
the abundance of water pressed into it by a
powerful machine, bursts from the pressure.
And the head feels light and clear when the
blood-vessels do not nervously beat, and the
brain does not become clouded by the spreading
of evaporations. Abstinence gives the stomach
ease, which relieves it from a forced con-
dition of slavery, and from boiling like a boiler,
working with a sickly effort to cook the food it
contains. The eyes look clear and undimmed,
without the haze that generally shadows the
vision of a glutton. The activity of the limbs
is stable, that of the hand firm; the breath is
regular and even, and not burdened by pent-up
98 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
organs. The speech of him who fasts is plain
and distinct; the mind is pure, and then it is
that the mind shows forth its true image of
God, when, as if in an immaterial body, it
quietly and undisturbedly exercises the func-
tions belonging to it. The sleep is quiet and
free from all apparitions. Not to extend
unnecessarily, we may sum up by saying that
fast is the common peace of the soul and body.
Such are the beneficent results of a temperate
life; and such are the precepts of a christian
life. It is a law of the Holy Church, which
prescribes that we should fast during the Lenten
season.
Do you not know that angels are the constant
watchers and guardians of those that fast, just
as the demons, those very friends of greasy
stuffs, those lovers of blood and companions of
drunkards, are the associates of those that give
themselves up to debauchery and orgies during
such a holy time as lent. The angels and saints,
as also the evil spirits, ally themselves with
those they love, they become related with that,
which is pleasing to them. Every day in our
life God points out a lesson to us concerning
the eternal life, but we very seldom heed it;
in a word, we generally don't care! Oh, is this
THOUGHTS ON FAST AND TEMPERANCE. 99
not terrible to think of? And yet no one man
will deliberately, so to speak, attempt to slight
the Almighty Creator, no one who is capable of
using his understanding in the very least de-
gree. But yet, beloved brethren, we do it!
we, day after day, in our worldly habits uncon-
sciously say: "I don't care!" Have we a right
to do anything at all unconsciously, when He,
in whose hand the very breath of our life
flutters as a very weak, little thing, when He,
I say, bestowed upon us this conscience? Over
and over again we dare to directly disobey
God's commands. It is a terrible thing to fall
into the hands of the Living God. But the
Lord of Hosts is long-suffering, and to repent-
ant christians He is the Father of Mercies.
Yet it behooves us, christians, to zealously
watch every step we take, to be sure that we are
w Iking in the path, that our Holy Church not
only pointed out, but, as it were, even cut out
for us by the stream of martyr's blood, by the
wisdom of the Holy Ghost abiding in the
sainted bishops of the universal councils, the
night labor of praying and fasting fathers, and
a host of pure, self-sacrificing, obedient women,
such as Mary, Thekla, Barbara, Makrina. The
church says that in time of Lent we must fast,
100 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
and we should not disobey, because our Holy
Church is the Church of God, and she tells us
what God Himself wills that we should do. If
we have all the learning of the nineteenth cen-
tury, it will appear as a blank before the simple
words of the church, spoken in the power of the
Spirit of God. We can not, and we have no
right (for who gave us such a privilege), to
excuse ourselves. We are with good inten-
tion, in simplicity of heart to obey the com-
mandments of the church, and not worry about
adapting ourselves to the ways of the church,
for when we obey with our whole heart, with a
strong desire to fulfill the holy command-
ments, then our Holy Mother Church adapts
herself to the weakness of her faithful children.
But let us turn back to the lesson pointed out
for us. We may every day learn a new lesson
about the next life, which is of so much im-
portance, that the examples in this life are in-
exhaustible. Look around and observe. In this
instance look into the kingdom of animals and
birds. See the clean dove hovering over places
that are clean, over the grain field, gathering
seed for its young. Now look at the unsatiated
raven, flapping its heavy wings around the meat
market. And so we must strive to love a
THOUGHTS ON FAST AND TEMPERANCE. 101
temperate life, that we may be beloved by
angels, and hate all unnecessary luxury, so as
not to fall with it into communion with de-
mons.
Let us return with our memory to the com-
mencement of our race, and experience will
testify to that which we sometimes make light
of. The law of fasting would not be given to
us, had not the law of the first abstinence been
transgressed. The stomach would not be
named as an evil-minded thing, had not the
pretext for pleasure entailed after it such con-
sequences of sin. There would be no need of
the plow and the laboring oxen, the planting of
seed, the watering shower, the mutual change of
the seasons of the year, the winter binding in
fetters and the summer opening up all things.
In a word there would be no need of such
periodically repeating toil, had not we, through
the mistaken pleasure of our first parents, con-
demned ourselves to this round of labor. Yet
we were on the way of leading another kind
of life, in compaiison with what we see now,
and which we hope to regain once more, when
we are liberated from this life of passion by
the resurrection. Such is the mercy of God's
condescension towards us, that we should be
102 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
again restored to the former dignity, which we
had enjoyed through His love to man, and
which mercy we did not carefully keep. Fast
is a type of the future life, an imitation of the
incorruptible existence. There are no feast-
ings and sensual gratifications over there.
Do not flee from the difficulty of fast, but set
up hope against the trial, and you will obtain
the desired abstinence from food. Repeat to
yourself the words of the pious: "Fast is
bitter, but paradise is sweet; thirst is torment-
ing, but the spring, from which he who drinks
will thirst never again, is at hand." The body
is importunate, but the immaterial soul is
much stronger — strength is dead, but nigh is
the resurrection. Let us say to our much crav-
ing stomach what the Lord said to the tempter :
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word of God. Fast is not hunger, but a little
abstinence from food, not an inevitable punish-
ment, but a voluntary continence, not a servile
necessity, but a free selection of the wise.
Prayand you will be strengthened; call, and a
prompt helper will come to your assistance.
SERMON ON THE GOSPEL OF THE
PRODIGAL.
(First read: Luke xv. 11-32.)
YOU HAVE heard to-day's gospel. The
parable of the "prodigal son" is not a thing
new to you. You have heard of, you have seen
the prodigal sin, and fall low, down, deep into
all the consequential miseries of iniquity. If
you do not know, you have heard of the bound-
less mercy of a pitying God. You may under-
stand how a good father takes back to his heart
his beloved child, once lost, but found again.
You know the parable of the prodigal son.
Then why is it that the church, year after year,
recalls to our memory this parable? She does
so in order to strengthen us in the way of salva-
tion. Until we have passed the final limit, and
receive our sentence at the hands of the Divine
Judge, we belong to the Church Militant, i. e.
while we are on earth, we are obliged to continu-
ally struggle for the good.
In order to obtain conscientious peace, love,
104 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
spiritual prosperity, and holiness, we must
always battle with the evil. The more high
and purely spiritual the condition is, which we
strive to attain, the more fierce is the fight, and
our warfare must be constant with wrong, infi-
delity, superstition, prejudice, and corruption.
Indeed, we must overcome ourselves, we must
get the better of self.
You, no doubt, have seen men and women
wasting their living in the most hideous visible
form of sin, but dare you stand in the awful
presence of the Most Pure Being and Creator,
and say that you are not a prodigal? Do you
not wish to come back to God — the Heavenly
Father? Sinners, yes, we are sinners! One of
the greatest meditators on the ways of Divine
Providence — the Prophet-King David- -in his
confession to God, says: "Thy commandment
is very broad." And, in this light, there is not
a commandment, or a law, which we -have not
transgressed.
Surely my time was not spent with harlots,
some might say, but did you make careful use
of your time, which is not yours, for it belongs
to Him who gave it, and did you without wasting,
treasure it so that it now bears a hundred fold
of profit, pleasing to the Keceiver of virtue in
SERMON ON GOSPEL OF THE PRODIGAL. 105
abundance? I Lad never lost control of myself,
so that, by unawares, my table prove to be a
scanty board of husks, and my companions a
herd of swine. Yet, you may not assert that
you beautified your soul with a holy character,
nor did you .enrich your intellect with an ever-
lasting wisdom; and your heart, is it clean, does
it expand so that the Holy Ghost freely makes
His abode there? Does it know the needy and
the deserving? Does it go out toward its neigh-
bor, yearning to share with its very existence —
giving up all self-interest, and even the com-
forts of an earthly life?
We, all of us, make up one household. We
are members of one and the same family. And
you will never taste of true happiness, nor
know what it is to be blessed, until you have
learned this lesson. You may be a younger
son or daughter, but if you be the prodigal,
remember, that in your Father's House there is
bread enough, and to spare-, come to yourself;
consider your life, remember the free and con-
fiding innocence of your first youth, now that
you are firmly fastened, and yet lost, look within
and find yourself. And when you have found
yourself, you will easily find God. He will see
you, while you are coming, yet far off, your
106 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
Father, and He will be moved with compassio?i,
He will fold you in His arms and kiss you.
If you are not a younger member of the
family, may you not be the elder son of the
Father? You may not be a lavish spendthrift,
nor a wanderer, and you may enjoy the quiet
of home, but are you secure? The enemy may
sow tares in the field of your heart, while you
are comfortably asleep. You may live in your
father's house faithfully and continually, you
may have the oversee of all the work, and the
servants, yet are you secure? No, if you do not
give yourself concern of the whereabouts of
your younger brother, you are not secure for
all time. You may be the oldest, you may
know all the secrets of the household, the keys
of all chests and doors may be in your posses-
sion, you may live in the Grace of God, and
enjoy the light of your Heavenly Father's
countenance, still, remember the elder son in the
parable! For the want of charity for :m erring
one, a sinner, an inexperienced one, for one
who labored under a wrong opinion, he — the
heir and first-born — came in danger of losing
all at the end. He was the cause of much
anxiety to his father who came out and en-
treated him. This one's pride (a false pride it
SERMON ON GOSPEL OF THE PRODIGAL. 107
was) that suffered. The father had to reason
with his son, who thought his sense of justice
was being injured. In the absence of virtue,
and charity — the principal one — we see the
elder son blind to his own condition, for he
dared to assert his rights, while justice belonged
to the real owner, his loving Father.
And now, my brethren, if we be the elder
members of God's family, let us think of the
responsibility, and not fall from Grace, but con-
tinue in His House. To the young, and to the
prodigal, if their conscience be not yet lost, the
Divine voice calls, come to your Father, and
tell Him all, He waits with open heart. Amen.
SERMON PREACHED ON ORTHODOX
SUNDAY.
Who is so great a God as our God? Thou art the God
that alone doest wonders.
ON THIS first Sunday in Lent, the Church,
in memory and in thanksgiving for her vic-
tory in the struggles and labors in protecting
the true Faith against the contentions of evil-
minded heretics, celebrates the "Triumph of
Orthodox Christianity," and for this reason we
call this day 4t Orthodox Sunday."
It was in 787 A. D. that the Church, in Uni-
versal Council assembled, decreed, among other
resolutions and canonical acts, that it was lawful
for Christians to use in their private and public
worship sacred images, i. e., pictures of our
Lord Jesus Christ, His Holy Mother, of the
Saints, and sacred events in Biblical and Chris-
tian history, but, of course, when divine ador-
ation was ascribed to God alone, and when rev-
erence is offered in honor of His works — the
objects which these cherished pictures represent
to us.
SERMON TREACHED ORTHODOX SUNDAY. 109
The Christian doctrine necessary for our sal-
vation, as revealed in Sacred Scripture and
Tradition, has been expounded and delivered
for usyjrom all mixture of human and heretical
interpretation, by the Seven Great Councils.
The one mentioned before was the last, namely,
the Seventh Ecumenical Council. These coun-
cils defined the teaching concerning the Persons
of the Most Holy Trinity in the one God-head,
the advent in the world of the Son of God, the
relations between ourselves and our Saviour,
the relations between the Church Militant on
earth and the Church Triumphant in heaven,
the Providence of God in our reward and in
our punishment, the Apostolic Succession and
Hierarchical Economy as necessary for the con-
tinuance of Christ's work in the world, the seven
Sacraments, etc.
It was not long, however, when again heresy
began to show itself in some of the branches of
the Church, and when some ambitious people
would impose upon the Church their personal
and fallible opinions. To ward off the false
shoots and upstarts, and to remind the Chris-
tians of the binding rules and canons of the
Seven General Councils, a large assembly of
Holy Fathers and teachers gathered in Con-
110 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
stantinople in 842 A. D., under the protection
of the good Empress Theodora, and, mindful of
the Divine Judgment pronounced of the Holy
Ghost though it was by the condescendingly
lovable Apostle St. Paul that if any man love
not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema
Maranatha, they declared: " To those who re-
ject the councils of the Holy Fathers and their
traditions which are agreeable to Divine Reve-
lation, and which the Orthodox Catholic Church
piously maintains, anathema " !
This council sat in convention during the first
week of Great Lent. While fasting and pray-
ing they collected all the decisions of the Seven
General Councils. When Sunday came they
marched in solemn procession, bearing the holy
cross, sacred images of our Lord, the Blessed
Virgin and the Saints, being followed by a mul-
titude of Christians devoutly chanting under
the leadership of the learned monk well known
by the name of St. Theodore the Studious, his
newly composed hymn which you have heard
to-day and which translated reads thus : "To
Thy most pure Icon (image) we bow down,
O Blessed One, praying for forgiveness of our
sins, Christ our God; for, of thine own will,
thou didst condescend to ascend the cross in
SERMON PREACHED ORTHODOX SUNDAY. Ill
flesh, and thereby to deliver thy creatures from
the yoke of the enemy. Therefore, we thank-
fully cry unto thee, Thou hast filled all things
with joy, O our Saviour, thou who earnest to
save the world."
Having come into the cathedral of St. Sophia
this religious and noted assemblage offered the
most impressive praise service, or "Te Deuin,"
ever known in the grand liturgies of the Holy
Orthodox Church. We have in the words of
the Psalmist David the key-note which re-echoed
in the thunder of anathemas and resounded in
the peals of praise of this complete and uni-
versal thanksgiving service : Who is so great a
God as our God? Thou art the God that alone
doest wonders! Here were recounted all the
false teachings condemned by the Ecumenical
Councils, and even persons were anathematized
for willfully adhering to heresy, who did not
repent of their sins, and earnestly seek the truth
by their return to membership in the Church of
Christ. Among such were those "who deny
the existence of God, and unreasonably main-
tain that the world existeth of itself, and that
all things happen through fate and without the
providence of God; those who insolently dare
to say that the All-pure Virgin Mary, before her
bringing forth, in her bringing forth, and after
112 PKEACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
her bringing forth, was not a virgin ; those who
believe not that the Holy Ghost gave wisdom
to the Prophets and Apostles, and through them
proclaimed to us the true way to everlasting
salvation, and that He confirmed them by won-
ders, nor believe that now He dwelleth in the
hearts of the faithful and true Christians, lead-
ing them into all truth; those who deny the
immortality of the soul, who reject the councils
of the Holy Fathers, and the traditions unani-
mous with the divine revelation which the Orth-
odox Catholic Church with veneration preserv-
eth; those who defame and blaspheme the holy
icons which the Holy Church useth to remem-
ber the works of God and of His Saints, so that
they who look upon the same may be incited to
fear God and to imitate what they see; and
those who say the icons are idols."
It may be necessary before we proceed to ex-
plain the word anathema; it means condemn-
ation and excommunication until restored after
sincere repentance. In some cases it may not
be only a temporal ban, but a curse. Indeed,
there are some members of the Church to-day,
Christians, who do not fully realize that the
Church of Christ is a living organism, which,
through the supernatural indwelling of the
Holy Spirit, exists as a moral being, empowered
SERMON PREACHED ORTHODOX SUNDAY. 113
within her sphere not only to bless, but also to
curse. Such ones of course do not read the
Bible. Those who studied the Epistles of the
Apostles know that it was required of the Cor-
inthians to put away from among themselves
that wicked person (1 Cor. v: 13). Likewise the
command was given to Titus, hear: A man that
is an heretic after the first and second admoni-
tion reject (Tit. iii: 10). Did not our Lord
Jesus Christ say : If thy brother neglect to hear
the Church, let him be to thee as an heathen
man and a publican? (Matt, xviii: 17.) And
again our Lord speaks: Whatsoever ye shall
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and
whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven (Matt, xviii: 18).
Since the time of this council which we have
just now been considering, the Church, annually,
until our day "has celebrated the triumph of
Truth over heresy, and blessed the memory of,
as well as commended the work of all them that
by words, writings, teachings, and sufferings, as
also by a life well-pleasing to God, have con-
tended for Orthodoxy as her defenders and
helpers." Among those now living are named :
The Koyal and Imperial Benefactors, the Ortho-
dox Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria,
Antioch,and Jerusalem, the Holy Synods of the
114 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
Kussian and other Orthodox Churches, the Most
Eeverend Bishops, the Keverend Clergy, all
right-believing Christians who, through saving
faith and good works, are expecting everlasting
blessedness. Thus the Church to-day in most
of the Diocesan cathedrals throughout the
world, while joyfully praising and honoring
them that submitted their understanding to the
obedience of the Divine revelation, and have
contended for the same by following the Holy
Scriptures and holding fast the traditions of the
primitive Church, at the same time "humbly
supplicates Almighty God for those who, by
heresy or by schism, have set themselves against
His evangelical truth that He may soften their
hearts, open their ears that they may recognize
His voice, heal their corruptions and deliver
them out of error."
When we see how the Lord of creation and
the Shepherd of His elect flock has preserved
His Church undefiled and whole through long
ages of the most terrible temptations, and when
we hear the prophet cry out that God wills
no one to be lost, but that all may come to re-
pentance and to the understanding of truth, we
can not else but cry out: Who is so great a
God as our God ? Thou art the God that alone
doest wonders.
SERMON PREACHED ON THE THIRD
SUNDAY OF GREAT LENT.
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross and follow me. (Mark viii. 34).
THIS third Sunday of Great Lent is the first
day of the Holy Cross week. In the midst
of this holy season the Church allows her chil-
dren to taste of the sweetness of the tree. In
the course of his forty days' journey over the
solitary wilderness of penance, the weary way-
farer comes to a tree, its shade inviting, its fruit
beneficial. He throws off his burden, with com-
posure and confidence he nestles at the foot of
the wood, and is refreshed. And this is just
what the Church of God prepares for the sin-
cere followers of Jesus Christ. Were we capable
of understanding the Almighty's plan, carried
out by the Church for our salvation, what con-
solation and benefit, both spiritual and tem-
poral, would be ours.
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross and folloio me.
This is what Jesus said to the multitude that
116 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
followed him. They followed Him, some from
curiosity, anxious to see a miracle performed,
others in earnest, eager to listen to the wrords
that came from the lips of Him, who taught as
one having the power, while there were those
which followed in humble obedience, grateful
tor the charity bestowed on them, or on their
loved ones, by the Prophet of Nazareth, and,
alas! there were some that dogged every step of
this Good Shepherd, who led his human flock
over the green hills of Galilee, or quenched
their thirst with living water down in the valley
of Jordon} spies — which were to take Him and
put Him to a horrible death — nailing Him hands
and feet to a crossed wood. As he turned to-
ward the people He addressed them, saying :
For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain
the whole world and lose his own soul. Who-
soever shall be ashamed of me and of my words
in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him
also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he
cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy
angels (Mark viii: 36, 38).
Jesus has nowadays many followers desirous
of consolation, but few of tribulation. All de-
sire to rejoice with Him, few are willing to
endure anything for Him. Many reverence His
SERMON PREACHED ON THIRD SUNDAY. 117
miracles, few follow the ignominy of His cross.
What cross is it which our Lord would have
us bear? Hardships, sickness, slander, perse-
cutions, poverty, desertion of friends, the heavy
cares of public responsibility, yea — and death
itself. We may for a time be forsaken of God;
sometimes we are troubled by our neighbors,
yea — and by those whom we love dearly; and
what is more, oftentimes we may even become
weary of ourselves. If Christ bore the cross
for all mankind, Christians are expected to help
carry the cross of at least some of their neigh-
bors. But how? By bearing in patience the
failings and weakness of our neighbor. By not
becoming ill-tempered when a brother or sister
sets forth his or her opinion as to this or that.
By hushing the serpent's hiss of envy, and
showing sympathy and gladness when one either
above or beneath us proves himself worthy of
public praise, though we ourselves may not be
so much as noticed. By denying ourselves the
wicked pleasure of making jest of a soul which
goes about acting strangely, and especially when
we do not understand nor see plainly the results
of such conduct. By denying ourselves the
luxuries which may supply the want of many
who suffer misery.
118 PREACHING IN THE EUSSIAN CHURCH.
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross and folloiv me
(Mark viii: 34). O bow powerful is the pure
love of Jesus, which is mixed with no self-
interest, with no self-love ! Are not those to be
called mercenary who are ever seeking conso-
lations? The Holy Fathers of the Church tell
us that " such are lovers of themselves, but not
of Christ. Where shall one be found, the Holy
Fathers continue, who is willing to serve God
for naught?" In their great fervor to serve, in
their deep and vast love for God, the Holy
Fathers had not noticed how they themselves
were growing into perfection by following our
Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, in their persons and
lives we have many types and good examples
unto the salvation of our souls; yea, and unto
the salvation of the world. And so we must
lose all that which unites us to this world that
is passing away. If we link our life with and
make it one with that of the common animal,
subject our reason to vain pursuits and the bet-
ter qualities of our spirit to passions of the flesh,
then we lose our life, for dust will go to dust.
But ivhosoever shall lose his life for the sake
of Christ and the Gospel, the same shall save it;
i. e., he who is dead to self, when one becomes
SERMON PREACHED ON THIRD SUNDAY. 119
separated from the principles which make one
long for the pleasure and desire of this world's
life, in which there is no thought for eternity,
the same shall save his life, though he seem-
ingly perish in discomfort and suffer banish-
ment at the hands of a self-idolizing society, for
he lives through Christ and the Gospel with the
spiritual life which never grows old and is ever-
lasting.
Daring the whole of this week the Church is
continually reminding us of the cross. And
many a weary soul is sighing for rest. . . .
Shall my burden be lessened? There seems to
be for some no end to sickness. The cares of
duty are constant and heavy. There are those
which cannot find a friend who could under-
stand their inmost soul and soothe their troubled
conscience. Oh! that God would give me that
inward peace, they cry without faith and in de-
spair. Deny yourself all passions which are
prompted by selfish motives and by interests,
which will pass away as the light of day is lost
in the darkness of night; deny these passions
all gratification whatever. What a hard lot !
you might say. The circumstances surround-
ing our lives are very pressing. . . . What will
people say? We must keep up with the rest of
the world. We are in a pitiable condition. No
120 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
one should criticise us. We should be left to
do as we please. But the Church says we must
give up the pleasure of being even a little
ambitious. Yes, the Church of Christ says:
Forsake all false ambition. Christians, be not
discouraged. The Infinite Wisdom itself watches
over your salvation. In selfishly moping over
our own woes, over our little cross, have we for-
gotten the Cross of Christ? The Church, then,
will remind us of it.
This week is set aside for the worship of the
cross. Here is the tree of life. The cross that
our Lord Jesus Christ carried to Mount Calvary
and made it an altar, on which He offered him-
self up to God the Father as a sacrifice. Let us
come to the shade of this tree and rest. This wood
has been planted for our own benefit. Let us in
holy meditation bring to our mind the suffering
of that bleeding form outstretched above us,
although it is difficult and for some impossible
to feel for one moment the anguish of that
cross, borne all the weary way from Bethlehem;
then our little crosses, which we have merited
by our sins, will not be a yoke of thorns, but
an altar on which we may offer up to God our
love. Our course is not finished. The road lies
before. . . . Lent is still in season. Now, while
we enjoy the protection of the cross, let us also
SERMON PREACHED ON THIRD SUNDAY. 121
supply ourselves with strength, i. e., the Grace
of God, for the journey is not finished and
the way is so uncertain. Let us refresh and
strengthen ourselves with a supply of the fruit
of the wood. The fruit is the flesh and blood
of our Saviour, who was sacrificed in order to
appease the righteous wrath of the Infinite God
for the sins of all mankind, beginning with the
disobedience of Adam. Shall not our Creator
receive us when we humbly and gratefully come
to Him together with His infinitely beloved,
His Only-begotten, as the Light which is of
Light, His Son Jesus Christ?
Christians, ye who come to this tree, go not
away without tasting of its sweet fruit. Our
Holy Church brings us this week to the cross
to be refreshed by renewing our spirit, so that
our own cross be not a burden but a blessing.
Do we forget our duty towards our Mother
Church? Yes, unfortunately some do. May we
not let go unheeded the advice of the parent,
which has given us birth in baptism for a new
life, but come to the foot of the cross and cast
off our yoke of sins, be absolved of all that
which is impure and wicked, either in thought,
or in desire, or in deed, by confession, and in
holy communion with Jesus Christ be recon-
ciled to God. Amen.
SERMON FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY
IN GREAT LENT.
For He {Jesus) taught His disciples, and said unto
them: the Son of Man is delivered up into the hands of
men, and they shall kill Him; and when He is killed,
after three days He shall rise again. (Mark ix: 31).
CHRIST the Saviour, having spoken the sor-
rowful word that they shall kill Him, adds
the joyful ones that He on the third day shall
rise again, concluding thus that we may know
that after sorrows there always follows happi-
ness. If there were no temptations there would
be no crown, no hardships, no rewards; were
there no conflicts, nor would there be any hon-
ors, no sorrows, no comforts; if there were no
winter there would be no summer.
And this we may observe not only in people,
yet also in the seeds which are thrown into the
earth; and here a heavy rain and much cold are
necessary, so that a stem spring up green, bear-
ing its ear of plenty. Let us sow also in the
time when spiritual misfortune visits us that we
may reap in the summer; let us sow tears that
SERMON FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY. 123
we may reap happiness. According to the
Prophet of God : They that sow in tears shall
reap in joy (Ps. cxxiii: 5). Not so beneficial
is the rain which pours over the seeds as the
rain of tears, which gives the power of growth
and ripens the seed of piety. As the tiller of
the soil cuts deep into the earth with his plow,
preparing a safe place for the seed that they
may hide in the very bowels of the earth and
safely take root, thus also should we with mis-
fortune and sadness, as with a plow, touch the
depths of our heart.
The holy Prophet would convince us thus,
saying: Tear open your hearts but not your
garments. Let U3 tear open our hearts so that,
if there be any evil plant or evil thought within
us, we may pluck it out with the root and cleanse
the field for seeds ct holy devotion. Lf we do
not renew the field now, if we do not sow now,
if we do not shed tears now, when it is Lent —
in this time of sorrow and fast — at what other
time, then, shall we be afllicted ? Can it be in
the time of ease and pleasure? No, it cannot
be then, for ease and pleasure lead to careless-
ness, while sorrow compels the soul, which is
beset with many attractions on all sides, to look
within itself.
The farmer having sown the seeds, which he
121 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
gathered with much labor, prays for rain; and
one, not knowing the work, with amazement
looks upon all, and, perhaps, thinks so within
himself : "What is that man doing? He throws
away that which he gathered; but not that only,
he yet carefully mixes it with the earth; and
that is not all, for he prays that what he has
sown may decay." Quite contrarily does the
farmer when he sees the coming clouds over-
shadow the sky he rejoices, for he does not look
at the present, but to the future; he doe3 not
tliiuk of the thunder, but of the sheaves; not of
the decaying seels, but of the yellow ripe stalks.
Thus should we look, not at the sorrow of the
present, but at the benefit which is derived from
it. If we be on our guard, we will not only
suffer no evil from sorrow, but derive much con-
solation; but if we be careless, the very enjoy-
ment of quiet will turn to be hurtful for us. To
the careless one thing and another is evil, but
to the diligent one thing and another is profit-
able. As gold retains its brightness when it lies
in the water, and becomes still brighter when it
is cast into the furnace, so we see the very oppo-
site when if clay and straw are put into water;
the one dissolves, the other rots. Now this is
just the case with the righteous and the sinner;
the first living in quiet remains bright like the
SERMON FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY. 125
gold which was put into the water, and being
afflicted with temptation becomes brighter still,
as the gold which passed through the fires of
the refinery. But the sinner, although enjoying
ease, dissolves and decays, as the straw and clay
thrown into water or the furnace, where it burns
and perishes.
Let us not be sad for present misfortune. If
you have any sins, they will be easily uprooted
by sorrow. And if you are the possessor of a
virtue, it will become brighter for having under-
gone temptation. If you will continually watch,
you will be beyond the reach of harm, as the
cause of falling generally is not the kind of
a temptation, but the carelessness of those
tempted. And so, if you would enjoy quiet, do
not seek pleasure, but strive to make your soul
capable of being patient, because if this quality
is wanting in you, you will not only be con-
quered by temptation, but sooner fall a prey to
the spirit of desolation which ease will bring
upon you. As the storms of wind do not uproot
a strong wood with its roots, but on the contrary
from constant blowing on from all sides it be-
comes firmer, so does the holy soul, although
overwhelmed with afflictions, it bends not, but
becomes invigorated with a higher energy. How
might we, a generation of the New Covenant,
126 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
become justified and forgiven when we with
difficulty overcome human temptations, while
Job, the much afflicted, outbore with such alac-
rity a most sore temptation in the days before
Grace, of the Old Dispensation?
Are you sad, beloved, because the Most Good
Provider through sorrowing brought you to the
thought of eternal salvation? God can put an
end to-day to all troubles; but He will not de-
stroy sorrow until He sees a change in us, until
repentance really and strongly works within us.
The goldsmith will not take the metal from the
fire before it is purified, and God will not with-
draw the tempest clouds before we are perfected
by corrections. He who sends the affliction
knows when the time comes to hold its stay.
A player of the cithern does not tighten too
much the strings, else they snap, nor does he
freely loosen them, else the harmony of sound
be lost. So does the Lord with our souls, which
He will not leave in continual ease, nor in ever-
lasting sorrow, ordering the one and the other
according to His wisdom. The Almighty does
not allow us to enjoy quiet without a change
that we may not become more careless; nor
does He keep us ever in sorrow that we may not
fall in despair. Since we are occupied with this
question, let us decide to wait for our Heavenly
SERMON FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY. 127
Father's own time for putting an end to troubles,
while we ourselves will pray and lead a life of
devotion : because to turn to righteousness and
live in the faith belongs to our obligation, but
to quiet our sorrow is the work of God. God
who is mightier than you, who are afflicted in
temptation, desires to quench that fire, but He
waits for your salvation. Therefore, as sorrow
is begotten from ease, likewise we should wait
for sorrow to give us quiet. It is not always
winter, nor always summer ; the tempest does
not always blow, nor does the quiet always last ;
it is not always night, nor all one day. Thus
also with us when we are sad, a change comes,
we feel lighter, our hope is stronger — if we pray
aud in time of sorrow continually thank God.
And so let us enclose ourselves on all sides
with truly good and charitable works, and
thereby be saved from the anger of God. Let
us make the members of our body the organs
of righteousness ; let us teach the whole body
to serve only the cause of virtue. Then we will
be delivered from present dangers, appease the
Most High, and reach that inexpressible bliss,
of which may we all be made worthy by the
Grace and love for us of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through Whom be glory to the Father with the
Holy Ghost, now, ever and forever. Amen.
SITY \
THOUGHTS FOE GOOD FRIDAY AT THE
PASSIONS AND BURIAL OF CHRIST.
IT was our earnest desire to pursue the story
of our Saviour's trials and His crucifixion;
but when I looked on Him whom they pierced,
my spirit failed before the terrible sight ; I
could not watch with Him another hour, and yet
I could not leave the hallowed scene. It seemed
as though I saw Him brought back from Herod
where the soldiers mocked Him. I followed
Him through the streets again as the cruel
priests pushed through the wild crowd and
hastened Him back to Pilate's court. My ears
sounded with the cry : Crucify Him, crucify
Him! Give us Bar abbas, the robber; let Bar ab-
bas go; but Christ, the King of the Jews, Jesus,
the Saviour, He must die I And there He stood,
who loved me and gave Himself for me, like a
lamb in the midst of wolves, with none to pity
and none to help Him.
As Jesus Christ hung apparently helpless
upon the cross, He had only to utter the word,
THOUGHTS FOR GOOD FRIDAY. 129
and in a moment more than twelve legions of
angels (what an invincible force of energetic
beings!) would be ready to succor and defend.
But to have shunned all pain and anguish, to
have refused the cup which His Father had
given Him, to have rejected the cross — this
would have been to leave man to his doom; this
He could not do. And so, He saved others.
Himself He could not save.
Our Lord for a long time bore His cross, as
though He felt not its weight; even from the
time of the most helpless age of humanity, when
He was born in the smallest town of the smallest
kingdom on the earth, when there was no home,
no cradle for Him, and when, except His humble
mother with her guardian, none but a few shep-
herds took any interest in His birth, He bore
His cross till at length He was completely de-
livered up on it. We could not follow Jesus
throughout in His earthly life. During these
holy days we have but endeavored to follow Him
only through a few of the last scenes of His
entire sacrifice. In a measure we understand,
and we feel in His sufferings, as His body, in its
weight drooped, being sustained but by four
nails, as the cross was raised over the multitude
of people on the hill and then the shock as it
130 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
went down into its socket Only a chosen few,
and likewise in a small measure can they under-
stand how He — who prayed, Father forgive
them, for they knoiv not what they do — has
stretched out his arms on the wood in order to
embrace a sinful world. But no mortal knoweth
how the Word teas with God, and the Word
was God. The Word of God is not bound by
death. As a word from the lips dies not entirely
away at the moment its sound ceases, but rather
gathers new strength, and passing through the
senses penetrates the minds and hearts of the
hearers, so also the Hypostatical Word of God,
the Son of God, in His saving incarnation,
whilst dying in the flesh, fills all things with
His spirit and might. Thus when Christ waxeth
faint and becometh silent on the cross, then is it
that heaven and earth raise their voice unto Him,
and the dead preach the resurrection of the
crucified, and the very stones cry out. And the
sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple
was rent in the midst; and the earth did quake
and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened,
and many bodies of the saints which slept arose.
O sinful man, O nature, bereft of perfection.
O reason, a mind earthly winged, down low,
stoop thou under cover of repentant shame be-
THOUGHTS FOR GOOD FRIDAY. 131
fore the light of this grave. Christian, there is
no other place for thee to-day but by the Cross
of Christ. " Broken and distributed is the Lamb
of God, which is broken, yet not severed, which
is ever eaten, yet never consumed, but sanctify-
ing those that participate." Therefore come, ye
sons of toil and. ye daughters of Eve; come,
come, ye citizens of the easy-going wide world;
see, His side is now and forever opened for us.
O mother, sufferest thou for thy children ? Bring
them to the tomb of Jesus and quiet thyself in
the stillness of His silence. Brother, sister,
behold in the Saviour thy kinsman. And thou
poor, lonely wanderer, here He quietly lies in
one place that thou may est find Jesus, thy only
Friend. We come, who labor in Thy infinite
sorrow for the sins of mankind, we who are
heavy laden with our infirmities, we come and
supplicate before Thy breathless form.
Uniting all things in one, grant that we all
may inseparably be one with Thee and Thy
Father, O Lord Jesus Christ ! Thou that recon-
cilest all, grant that all may be of one mind in
faith and in love toward Thee. Thou that bears
not with the envious and contentious, destroy all
wicked heresy and separations. O Jesus ! Thou
that lovest and pitiest, gather into one flock all
132 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
wandering sheep. Thou that givest peace to all,
still the voice of spite and dispute among those
who call upon Thy name. Thou who communi-
catest to us the very Body and very Blood of
Thyself, grant that we truly be flesh of Thy
flesh and bone of Thy bones. O Jesus, the God
of our hearts, unite us with Thee, now and for-
ever. Amen.
SEKMON ON THE GOSPEL KELATING
TO THE IMPOTENT.
John v: 15.
JESUS went up to Jerusalem. These are the
words which begin the Gospel appointed to
be read at the Liturgy on this Sunday. How
many thousands must have hurried to those
feasts in honor of the One irue God, in that
splendid city of types and symbols of things
not yet made clear, and to be manifested in the
midst of pagan and barbarous nations ! It must
have been a great multitude that almost continu-
ally went up to Jerusalem. So did our Lord
Jesus Christ go with them. He was in the crowd,
sometimes known, but most often His own re-
ceived Him not. Those who went up to Jeru-
salem in those days went to the only one Temple,
where the only divinely authorized priesthood had
offered the one acceptable type of the all-avail-
able sacrifice. To be understood, in plainer lan-
guage, we may say of them that they went to
church. There is nothing extraordinary; the
going is a simple fact of going to church. But
134 PEE ACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
how did they go? Absurd? Does it seem to
you so? Certainly, it seems that most people go
along in the same way. At the bottom of the
movement which makes people go somewhere,
there is an intention, and I think that when peo-
ple go to church they go with a fixed purpose.
If you ask how they go, with the purpose of
disclosing their one or several intentions, then I
answer with the word of God as recorded by
St. Paul : For who among men knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of the man,
which is in him? Even so the things of God
none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. But for
our edification and salvation on this as well as
on several other memorable occasions, we are per-
mitted to see and to learn how our Lord Jesus
Christ went up to Jerusalem, and consequently
how He went to Church.
He went to Jerusalem at the feasts in order to
give a larger number of people an opportunity
of seeing and hearing the Truth. He went to
the house of His Father, and openly manifested
His power as the Son of God. Before the doc-
tors and lawyers He testified to the Old Testa-
ment prophecies as the Messiah. He passed by the
way of sufferers so that He might help them, and
where He was not expected, there He was found.
THE GOSPEL OF THE IMPOTENT MAN. 135
He gave courage to those who had lost hope, and
those who hoped on and long He rewarded with
His grace. Where an angel by stirring the
water cured a sick one in a year, He, the Lord
of Angels, heals both body and soul, be it of
one, or a hundred, or a thousand, and now as
He did then and ever will as long as one be
found who will surrender himself as others have
done : Lord, thou canst make me whole !
But let us return to Bethesda, not because it is
the public hospital where lay a multitude of the
needy, but because, as impotent folk ourselves,
we will find there on this occasion the bread of
life and the very source of the never-ending
stream of living water. Let us follow Christ
through the five porches, where a certain man
icas which had been thirty and eight years in
his infirmity. When Jesus saw him lying, and
knew that he had been now a long time in that
case, He saith unto him : Wouldst thou be made
whole? The sick man answered Him: Sir, I
have no man, when the water is troubled, to put
me into the pool; bid while I am coming another
steppeth down before me.
Why is it that Jesus passed by all the others
and stopped by this one ? He did so in order to
show His power and also His love for mankind :
136 PKEACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
His power, because the disease had become in-
curable and the weakness of the sick one was
beyond hope ; His love for mankind, because
the Provider and Merciful One, in preference to
others, looked upon such who were especially
worthy of pity and charity. Let us not quickly
pass by this place without giving our attention
to the thirty-eight years during which this sick
one continued in his weakness. Let all who
struggle with continual poverty, or pass their
lifetime in sickness, or those who find themselves
in difficult and threatening circumstances, or
cast down in the storm and tempest of sudden
troubles, let them all hear of it. No one can be
so faint-hearted, so mean and unfortunate as not
to bear all that happens to us manfully and
with all cheerfulness, when looking upon this
special one at the watering place of Bethesda.
If he suffered for twenty years, or ten, or only
five years, would they not be sufficient to break
the strength of his soul? But he remains in
that condition for thirty-eight years, and does
not break down in spirit, but shows great
patience. Hear his wisdom, for indeed a Chris-
tian may lend ear to this sick one's philosophiz-
ing. Jesus came up and said to him : Woiddsi
ikon be made whole? Who does not know such
THE GOSPEL OF THE IMPOTENT MAN. 137
a thing? Why of course the impotent desired
to become well. Then for what reason does he
ask? Certainly not because of ignorance: for
Him who knows the secret thoughts of people,
that which was apparent and open to all was to
Him the more so simple. Why does He ask?
As He said to the centurion : I will come and
heal him, not because He did not know at first
what his answer would be, but because foreseeing
and knowing well the answer He wished to
give the centurion the opportunity to disclose
before all his piety, which was concealed as
if under a shadow, and to say : Lord, I am
not worthy that Thou shouldst come under
my roof. So also this impotent, of the nature
of whose answer He knew, the Lord asks does
he wished to be healed, not because He knew
that not himself, but for the purpose of giving
the sick one a chance to speak out of his mis-
fortune and to become a teacher of patience.
If the Savior had healed this man silently, we
would have lost much by not learning of the
strength of his soul.
Christ does not rule the present only, but He
offers to the future also His condescending and
great care. In the impotent He showed us a
teacher of patience and courage for all times to
come, having put him to the necessity of answer-
138 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
ing the question : Wouldst thou be made whole?
But what of him? The impotent was not
offended; he did not become angry; he said not
to the inquirer: Thou seest me infirm, thou
knowest that my sickness is of long standing,
and thou inquirest, do I desire to regain my
health ? But did you come to laugh at my mis-
fortunes and to make light of other people's
troubles ? You know how faint-hearted the sick
become when they lay in bed even one year; but
whose sickness lasts for thirty-eight years, does
it not become natural for such a one to lose all
better knowledge, wasting away in the course of
so long a time? The impotent, however, said
nothing like this, nor even thought of it, but he
answered with much modesty : Sir, I have no
man, when the water is troubled, to put me into
the pool. See how many troubles unitedly
grieved this man : his disease, his poverty, and
the absence of a lifting, a helping hand. While
I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
This is that which is the saddest of all, and it
ought to have softened even a stone. Does it
not seem as if you can see this man each year
creeping along until he has crept up to the very
side of the pool, then stopping each year just
before the reach of a bright hope? And it is
the more burdensome, as he experienced this not
THE GOSPEL OF THE IMPOTENT MAN. 139
for two, or three, or ten, but for thirty-eight
years. He did everything in his power, but did
not obtain the result; the labor was accomplished,
but the reward for labor went to another one
during all these many years; and, what is more
burdensome, he saw others healed.
The good fortune of others around us compels
us to plainly see in the contrast our own mis-
fortune ; it was the same then with the impotent.
Nevertheless, for so long a time he struggled
with sickness, with poverty, and with loneliness,
seeing that others were healed, while he himself,
although he always tried, but never could reach
his desire, and not hoping in the future to liber-
ate himself of suffering, with all this against
him he did not retreat, but renewed his endeavor
each year. And we, if we once pray to God and
do not obtain what we have asked for, we imme-
diately become disappointed and fall into extreme
carelessness, so that we stop praying and lose
fervor. May we according to worth praise the
impotent, as we may in the same way condemn
our negligence? What justification and forgive-
ness may we expect when he was patient for
thirty-eight years, while we become despondent
so soon. To this one it has been said : Arise,
take up thy bed and walk. And if we be or be
not infirm in body, or soul, mind, character, or
140 PREACHING IN THE KUSSIAN CHURCH.
condition, it is in every instance demanded of us
all to take up our cross and to follow Him, our
Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, after a faithful
following, we shall see ourselves gloriously resur-
rected.
Because Jesus did these things on the Sab-
bath the Jews persecuted Him. When perse-
cuted for doing the works which proclaimed Him
to be the Redeemer of the world, did our Lord
justify Himself before His enemies and prove
the Divine right of His most exalted mission?
If He did not, then how could we, even to this
day, hope in our salvation? Let us see how
Jesus, on this occasion, has justified Himself;
for the manner in which He proves His inno-
cence shows us whether He belongs to the num-
ber of such who are ruled, or to the free, to
those who serve, or whether He is of those who
command. His action seemed to be a great
iniquity, a sin against the law ; for he who once
gathered wood on the Sabbath was according to
the law stoned to death for carrying a burden on
the Sabbath (Num. xv: 32, 36). Now Christ was
accused of the same crime, namely, that He did
not keep the Sabbath. Does He ask forgiveness
as a servant and as a man under subjection, or
does He appear as one who has power and inde-
pendence as a Master, who is above the law and
THE GOSPEL OF THE IMPOTENT MAN. 141
who Himself giveth the commandments? How
does He justify Himself? My Father , says He,
worketh even until now, and I work. Do you
see His might? If He was lower or lesser than
the Father, then what He had said would not be
counted in His acquittal, but it would be to a
greater accusation and to a greater condemna-
tion. If one does something which is lawful to
be done only by one who is above Him, and then
having been taken and given to judgment, he
says : as another higher one has done so, I also
have done so, he would not only free himself
from the charge in this way, but he would sub-
ject himself to a greater accusation and sentence,
because to take upon one's self that which is
above one's dignity can be done only by a self-
conceited and proud person. Therefore, if Christ
was lower than the Father, then what He had
said would not be to His justification, but to a
greater condemnation. But as He is equal with
the Father, there is no fault in the words of
Jesus Christ.
To understand the better what has been said,
let us remember that His disciples had once
broken the Sabbath in the field by pulling ears
of corn and eating them ; now He violated it
Himself ; the Jews accused them, and now they
accuse Him. We will now investigate as to how
142 PKEACHING IN THE KUSSIAN CHURCH.
He clears them and how He justifies Himself, so
that we may learn from the difference between
one and the other of the superiority of His
justification. How did He justify His disciples ?
Have you not read what David did when he
hungered? (Matt, xii: 3.) Defending creature-
servants, He calls to mind David, a fellow-serv-
ant like unto themselves, but justifying Himself
He reaches out with His speech to the Father :
My Father workeih, aud I work. Perhaps some
one might ask : What kind of work does Jesus
speak of, if after six days God rested from all
His works? (Gen. ii: 2.) It is the everyday, the
continual guidance and providence, for God not
only made all nature, but He also keeps His
creation. Do you refer to the angels, the arch-
angels, or to the higher powers, and, in a word,
to all things visible and invisible? Yes, all are
under His providence, and if it would go outside
the realm of His activity, then it falls to pieces,
becomes destroyed and would perish. And so
our Lord, desiring to show that He is the pro-
vider and not the object of providence, the
worker and not the object of activity, He has
therefore said : My Father worketh, and I work,
thereby proving His equality with the Father,
and to whom with the Holy Ghost be all glory
now and to ages of ages. Amen.
SEKMON FOB THE SUNDAY WHEN THE
GOSPEL OF THE BLIND IS BEAD.
(Read first the ninth chapter of St. John.)
THIS is the Gospel for to-day. What lesson
have we to learn on this day? We must
find the substance in these words, and feed on it,
for it is spiritual food. When we have digested
this Divine food, it will be assimilated with our
natures, and our humanity will become purer,
brighter, stronger, yea — and perpetual, so long
as it lives with the Word of God, for hath not
the Savior Himself said when the devil tempted
Him who hungered in the wilderness : That
man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
ivord that proceedeth out of the mouth of God?
So then, have we considered the Gospel while
being read? If so, we find that the principal
subject of it is the miracle which was worked by
our Lord Jesus Christ. Next, we observe the
man who was the object of the miracle, and
finally we get a perspective of the condition.
The circumstances which surrounded this mira-
cle were most unfavorable for the blind man's
144 PREACHING IN THE EUSSIAN CHURCH.
confirmation in the faith, although he succeeded
against such materialistic odds, and likewise for
an open manifestation of the glory of the "Won-
der-worker Himself, yet the greatness of which
became the more conspicuous as passion-bound
opinions, systems and classes strived to over-
come or, in the least, to belittle it.
When 1 stop to meditate, it seems that I am
transported to the green hills of Judea, where
the common folk of both hill country and popu-
lous valley are all astir with lively discussions
in the midst of their every-day duties, as in their
homes they go about to and fro, and, mind you,
it is all about religion and politics; religion first
and politics after — insomuch as it is related with
the proud nature of a people, who boasted of
being the chosen race of God, who expected His
messenger, and were to be ruled by none other
than the Messiah Himself, unto all ages. It
was a day of expectations, indeed. The intellect
of the masses had been sharpened to a turning
point. The very "times" themselves were full
with signs. Everybody was inquiring. The
people willingly divided themselves into two
sets : those that taught and those that were
taught. The nearer that some of them had got-
ten to the truth, the more danger there was of
THE GOSPEL OF THE BLIND. 145
taking falsehood for the truth, and thereby more
danger of two blind men falling into one pit.
Passions, although with a semblance of a highe r
quality, yet human and materialistic, ruled the
hour. In such a midst Christ, the only true
teacher of men, had come. No one condemned
false doctrine so energetically as this teacher
had done, and no one had taught with such in-
vincible strength and power as He did. Now
the whole company of teachers arose against this
One, and, notwithstanding their divisions, they
knew how to agree in one and the same decision
which suited them all, and that was : That He led
the multitude astray (John vii: 12), He speak-
eth blasphemies (Luke v: 21), He perverteth
our nation (Luke xxiii: 2), and, at the end, for
His teaching said they : He is worthy of death
(Matt, xxvi: 66). But they could not destroy
the work of Him, whom they hated, for the peo-
ple did see in Him The Great Prophet (Luke
vii: 16). Above His calling as a teacher, He
had the merits of a miracle worker. What now
could His angry enemies do or say against this ?
Now they would do as they have done at that
time, viz: murdered Him. But His works re-
main, and for that the glory of His resurrection
is the brighter. When the different conditions
146 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
of a changing world, together with the many
representatives of opinions have exhausted their
machinery, all their means, and wasted their fine
scholastical dialectics, while the simple facts,
told by him who had once been blind, remain as
simple facts, which he — who now sees — will not
renounce, then society answers and says to the
followers of Jesus Christ: "You were altogether
born in sins, and do you teach us?" When Chris-
tians cannot be subdued, nor compelled to follow
the ways of politicians or the world in general,
then they are left all to themselves. And they
cast Him out.
The Son of God, manifesting His power in
miracles that we may desire Him alone and
thereby become strong in faith — this is the les-
son that we are to learn to-day. Now the learned
tell us that the nineteenth century (which hap-
pily is in its death-throes) requires "advanced
thought." I wish the nineteenth century was
over; we have heard it bragged about so much
that one actually gets sick with the nineteenth
century. We are told that this is too sensible a
century to need or accept the same Gospel as the
first, second and third centuries. Yet these were
the centuries of martyrs and confessors, the cen-
turies of heroes, the centuries that conquered all
THE GOSPEL OF THE BLIND. 147
the gods of Greece and Eome, the centuries of
holy glory, and all this because they were the
centuries of the Gospel. But now we are so
enlightened that our ears, strange to say, really
ache for something fresh, and under the influ-
ence of so-called refined literature (how about
ordinary novels?) our beliefs are dwindling
down from mountains to ant-hills, and we our-
selves from giants to pygmies.
By God's grace some of us abide by the
Orthodox Faith, and mean to preach the same
Gospel which the saints received at first. It is
a foundation which we dare not change. It must
be the same, world without end, for Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Amen.
SEEMON ON THE FEAST OF THE
ASCENSION*
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He
went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,
which also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing
up into heaven f (Acts i: 10, 11).
THE " two men in white apparel," who imme-
diately after the ascension of the Lord ap-
peared to the Apostles and asked them why they
stood gazing up into heaven, were without doubt
themselves inhabitants of heaven; therefore it
is not to be supposed that this was displeasing
to them, or that they desired to direct the gaze of
those men of Galilee elsewhere. No. They de-
sire only to put an end to the inert amazement
of the Apostles when saying: Why stand ye
gazing up into heaven? Having aroused them
from their amazement, they draw them into medi-
tation, and teach them and us with what thoughts
we should gaze into heaven, following our Lord
Jesus who hath ascended thither. This same
* This sermon was written and delivered by the author
a few days after reading a most beautiful, but lengthy,
sermon in the Russian language by the celebrated Met-
ropolitan Philaret of Moscow.
THE FEAST OF THE ASCENSION. 149
JesiiSy they added, which is taken up from you
into heaven, shall come in like manner as you
have seen Him go into heaven.
The disciples of the Savior then beheld the
exact fulfillment of His words which Mary
Magdalene had recounted to them: I ascend
unto my Father and your Father, and to my
God and your God. They could not but con-
clude that those joyful visitations which He had
bestowed upon them during the forty days after
His resurrection from the dead, those instructive
conversations with Him, that palpable commun-
ion between them and His divine humanity, were
at that moment ended. When neither hand nor
voice could any longer reach Him, they followed
Him with their eyes, eager to detain Him; they
looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went
up. We can conceive what an immeasurable
bereavement the Apostles must have felt after
the ascension into heaven of Jesus, who was all
and everything in the world to them; and it is
this very bereavement for which the heavenly
powers hasten to console them when telling them
that this same Jesus . . . shall come.
In considering the circumstances of the ascen-
sion of Christ into heaven, we may first note the
blessing which He then gave to the Apostles,
150 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
and it come to pass, says the Evangelist Luke,
while He blessed them He was parted from
them and carried up into heaven. What an end-
less current of the grace of Christ is thus re-
vealed unto us, Christians ! The Lord begins a
blessing, and before its completion ascends into
heaven; for while He blessed them He was car-
ried up into heaven. Thus even after His ascen-
sion does He still continue invisibly to impart
His blessing. It flows and descends continu-
ously upon the Apostles; through them it is dif-
fused upon those whom they bless in the name
of Jesus Christ; those who have received the
blessing of Christ through the Apostles spread
it among others; and thus do all who belong to
the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church become
partakers of the one blessing of Christ. As the
dew of Hermon that descended upon the moun-
tain of Zion, so does this blessing of peace de-
scend upon every soul that riseth above passions
and lusts, above vanity and the cares of the
world; as an indelible seal does it stamp those
who are of Christ in such a manner that at the
end of the world He will by this very sign call
them forth from the midst of all mankind, say-
ing, Come ye blessed!
And now, my brethren, let us consider how
THE FEAST OF THE ASCENSION. 151
needful it is for us to endeavor to gain now and
to preserve this blessing of the Ascended Lord,
which descends upon us also through the Apos-
tolic Church. If we have received and preserved
it, we shall, at the future advent of Jesus Christ,
be called together with the Apostles and the
saints to participate in His kingdom : Come ye
blessed! But if, when He shall call the blessed
of His Father, this blessing either be not found
in us, or we be found in possession only of the
false blessing of men who themselves have not
inherited the blessing of the Heavenly Father
by grace and in the sacraments, then what will
become of us? Yea, I say, let us consider this
vital point before the opportunity be taken away.
The day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the
night. From this same unexpectedness of His
second coming our Lord Himself draws for us
Christians a saving warning : Watch, therefore,
for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Do not be led away by curiosity or credulity,
and beware of such ones who pretend to know
more than Christ hath granted them to know.
Let us endeavor rather to know what failings we
have, to number our transgressions, and to seek
a limit to them in repentance. Let us take heed
lest the children of this world and our own pas-
152 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
sions lull our spirits into sleep, till the approach
of that longed for, yet dreadful hour: When
the Lord come.
The blessing of the Lord come upon you by
His grace and love towards man, always, now,
and ever and unto the ages of the ages.
SERMON PREACHED ON TRINITY
SUNDAY.
There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ohost; and these three are one.
(Uohnv:7).
THE Orthodox Faith is this, that we worship
One God in Trinity, and the Trinity in
Unity, neither confounding the persons (hypos-
tasis), nor dividing the substance (Symbol
d'Athanasius). What will it profit us when we
study deeply concerning the Trinity, if we be
found lacking in humility and thereby are dis-
pleasing to the Most Holy Trinity? It is not
for us to search into the incomprehensible mys-
tery of Divinity. If we would approach any
where within a reasonable approach to the Divine
Mind, we, who are of the lower ones, should
always endeavor to be pleasing companions to
those who are of the higher ones, so that we may
fervently glorify the thrice illumined Deity to-
gether with the angels, singing with that faith,
which is the assurance of things hoped for, the
e st of things not seen: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord
154 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
of Sabbaoth, heaven and earth are full of Thy
glory.
"Some may say," as St. Cyril of Jerusalem
lias long ago rightly surmised, " if the nature or
substance of God is infinite, then to what pur-
pose do we speak of it? But shall I abstain
from taking water out of the river for my use,
though a small measure, because I cannot drink
up the whole river? Is it because my eyes can-
not contain the whole of the sun himself, I should
not, as much as is necessary, make use of the
daylight? And if I were to enter some large
garden, the fruits of which I could not eat up,
would you, for this reason, have me leave the
garden altogether hungry?" Indeed we need
the water, we need the sunlight, and the fruits
of good endeavor and religious labor we enjoy.
Therefore we should, and it is our bounden duty
to learn of that knowledge, which the Creator
has been pleased to reveal of Himself to His
Church, without giving ourselves to vain specu-
lations, and probing into mysteries not neces-
sary for our temporal welfare, much less so for
our eternal salvation; and while not attainable
to our limited mind, sometimes because of the
presence of sinful pride, sometimes on account
of deceit and feeble support in false systems
SERMON PREACHED TRINITY SUNDAY. 155
and individual schemes, but chiefly because a
drop does not contain the ocean, a particle of
creation cannot embrace the earth, the worlds,
and that wisdom and power which ordered the
universe and established the laws by which it is
preserved. '
To learn of the Supreme Being and concern-
ing the Holy Trinity in the God-head, we need
not go far; the philosopher cannot make clearer
the light itself; we need not question the astron-
omer; and surely the majority of mankind only
become puzzled when they singly weigh the cor-
roborations of the geologist. Just look around
and you will see on the space of a few yards of
earth a great quantity of heterogeneous beings
and natures, existing in the same air and by the
same material food in substance as we do; yet
some are adapted to life in the air, some move
only in the water, and others are subjected to
several certain limited forms of existence upon
the land, while man, by his intellect and by his
will, adapts himself to his surroundings in such
a measure that he controls all other forms of
animal life, and even overcomes natural obstacles
by a force which is above nature. Thus we see
man is created in the likeness of the Most High
Creator.
156 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
After all these ages we cannot find in the ad-
vanced theories of modern literature an hypoth-
esis that may compare with the plain statement
of facts by the Holy Fathers during the first
centuries of Christianity, as we have them con-
cisely epitomized by St. John of Damascus. He
says : " The Divinity is indescribable and in-
comprehensible. For no one knoweth the Son,
but the Father, and the Father no one knoweth
save the Son (Matt, xi: 27). And also the Holy
Ghost knoweth that which is of God, as the
spirit of man knoweth the things of a man
(1 Cor. ii: 11). Beside the first and blessed
Being no one ever knew God, unless God had
revealed Himself to some one ; no one, not only
of mankind, but no one of the celestial powers,
nor of the Cherubim and Seraphim. Yet God
has not left us entirely ignorant of Himself.
The very knowledge of the existence of God
the Creator has Himself implanted in our nature.
And creation itself, the government of nature
and its preservation proclaim the greatness of
God. Above this, first through the law and the
Prophets, then through His only begotten Son,
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, God revealed
to us as much knowledge of Himself as we are
capable of containing. Therefore, all that has
SERMON PREACHED TRINITY SUNDAY. 157
been given us by the law, the Prophets, the
Apostles, and the Evangelists, we accept, acknowl-
edge, and respect, and we seek nothing more.
Thus God, as the Omniscient One and the Pro-
vider of that which is profitable for each one of
us, has revealed all that is for our good, and kept
in silence that which we are not capable of con-
taining. Being satisfied thereby, we will keep
to this, not transfixing the borders of eternity
and not overstepping Divine tradition."
In the light of Divine revelation it becomes
clear to our reason that, excepting the one, true,
most perfect God, another cannot exist, because
the most wise, most powerful, the most High and
perfect Being must be only one, beside whom
there is no other.
The Christian Faith is the religion of the
Most Holy Trinity. And this is nowhere so
plainly demonstrated as it is in the books of the
New Testament. The preacher with the hearers
and doers of the Word would be unequal to the
task to take up at this moment for examination
the great number of testimonies we have in the
history of the New Testament concerning the
Orthodox Faith, in which we worship One God
in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity. But this is
not all. If you turn to the books of the Old
158 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
Testament, it can be seen that the Patriarchs of
the nations and the saints of old had almost as
clear a conception of the nature of God as we
Christians, and believing in One God they at the
same time worshipped, more or less consciously,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The
Most Holy Trinity, while distinct in Persons, is
of equal Divine Substance, and equal Majesty.
We do not belittle the awful magnitude of this
Truth when we follow the example of the Holy
Fathers by taking various illustrations from
created life to help us in some measure grasp
this doctrine of the Divine Three in One, and
One in Three. In man's soul the image of God
is more or less reflected. Take for instance the
memory which recalls the hour of Divine Lit-
urgy, the understanding which reasons upon the
duty of public prayer, or considers the excuses
that might be pleaded for staying at home, and
then the will which chooses one course or the
other.
And now let us remember that, although we
are among the weakest members of all creation,
we may become, by being faithful Christians,
partakers of the Divine Nature (2 Peter i: 4)
that by the grace of the Holy Ghost, who has
regenerated us, we are all the children of the
SERMON PREACHED TRINITX SUNDAY. 159
Heavenly Father and brethren to His only be-
gotten Son (John i: 12, 13, Luke xiii: 21). Thus
we may come into the closest moral relations
with the Triune God Himself, if only, believing
in Him and earnestly drawing toward Him with
hope, we shall love Him with our whole heart,
with our whole soul, and with our whole mind
(Matt, xxii : 27). Then, without doubt, the promise
of the Savior will be fulfilled for us. Jesus said :
If a man love me, he will keep my word, and
my Fedher will love him, and will come unto
him, and make our abode with him (John xiv: 13).
And then also we will understand the meaning
of these words of the Apostle : Know ye not
that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit
of God dwelleth in you? (1 Cor. iii: 16). Amen.
THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY.
HOW long will it thus go on ! When will
the baptized become active Christians, so
that the pastors may give their attention to the
conversion of the heathen? What a terrible
battle we must fight. Already the fire of hell
is in the world. Great cities are multiplying
throughout the land. The farmer, as the word
is defined in our dictionaries, is a thing of the
past. It is now the land-owner with a mansion
in the city, a yacht on the sea, and with a private
train across the continent. There are compara-
tively but a few laborers in the fields — too poor
to support families. The quiet country homes
are becoming few, shall I say precious? I fear
not so, because people are fast losing their
ability to rightly estimate the value of things.
Most of the cities in all the world are over-
crowded. The female portion of the population
is most conspicuous. A stupid craze after
unwholesome fashions is the one all-absorbing
passion of the majority of women. There is no
THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 161
room for gardens and yards ; most of the chil-
dren in San Francisco are actually brought up
in the streets. Oh, how few of them feel the
blessed influence of a Christian home ! Young
men and young women are continually " on the
go," as they say. And this "go" is a nervous,
unsteady rush to " keep up with the times." And
after all their hurry nothing is left but steam
and vapor, for they are empty, as empty as the
changing and vanishing world can be. Yet they
fret and inquire : " Where shall we go to and
what shall we see? What shall we do? Oh !
what can we do?" If you promenade along the
broad avenue or pass through the narrow lane,
if you visit the meeting halls in the city or look
into the factories, everywhere you see that same
all-devouring gaze of the bold young woman,
who stares with a kind of artificial movement of
the eyes. And sometimes you hear even so-
called Christians say that it is a weakness of
character in one who has the downcast eyes of
modesty, the blush of innocence. Such people
do not know the live sense and fine impulse of a
pure conscience. When a young man puffs
tobacco smoke or shows his teeth with a dis-
approving smile in the presence of and at the
conversation of older people, then society is
162 PBEACHING IN THE EUSSIAN CHURCH.
wrong; something is the matter with his family.
In view of all this, beloved, the preacher of
the Word of God is obliged by a terrible oath
he has given before he received the gift in
Apostolic succession at his ordination, to present
to you the whole of the Truth, not a part of it.
The number of unmarried people is increas-
ing. And there are some married people who
say: "We do not want children, because we
want to have as much pleasure as possible."
This is a false position, for in a Christian mar-
riage one kind of pleasure is not allowed con-
tinually. Christians marry for the sake of God
and His law as much as they do for themselves.
But Christians who remain single renounce
marriage and live holy for the sake of God and
Him alone. Thus we find that the family tie is
abused, as well as the single state. Courtship
of young people just out of school is not to be
advised, because it often leads to debauchery.
A courtship running through long years also
gives occasion to sin and a species of wrong-
doing to God, for the heart and its love are
stolen from God and thrown away on a man.
Throughout all the long centuries of Chris-
tianity there have been in the Church heroic
members, young people of both sexes, who by
THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 163
the grace of God have kept their souls pure and
intact, and have dedicated to the honor of God
the noblest attribute of their human life, namely,
an untarnished purity of soul and body. Such
persons have had the courage and such un-
bounded confidence in God's assistance that,
although living in the world and its dangers,
though threatened by the cravings of their own
individual passions and by the temptations of
the devil, yet they have succeeded bravely in
preserving this treasure even in a frail earthen
vessel, have carried it uninjured through life's
long journey here below, and have finally pre-
sented it to their Lord.
Christian heroes and heroines, you who have
imitated or who still do imitate the sublime ex-
ample of the Most Blessed Virgin, the Church
admires your spirit of sacrifice as she does that
of the holy martyrs, who in a few hours finished
their contest and proved their fidelity to God
and their faith; because you have to combat, to
suffer, and to sacrifice your whole life through.
With joy and veneration do the angels look down
upon you, for you resemble themselves. With
motherly affection and with mighty power does
the Holy Virgin Mary when you earnestly pray
throw her sheltering omophorion around you,
164 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
for you are her pupils and imitators. "With the
sweetness of divine love the heavenly Bridegroom
will fill your heart and more than compensate
you for the fleeting, transient, worldly love that
you have laid down at His feet. The eternal
Judge will find you waiting like the wise and
prudent virgins who all through life carry in
their hands the pure oblation of love and the
burning light of good example. Therefore, faith-
ful to the end, He will invite you to the eternal
wedding feast in heaven. Amen.
SEEMON TO THOSE PEEPABING FOE
HOLY COMMUNION.
Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that
bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and
drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation unto
himself. (1 Cor. xi: 28, 29.)
THESE words oi the Apostle are terrible,
and so are they as the truth unfailing.
Verily the judgment is heavy and the damnation
terrible for the one who receives the body and
blood of Christ without due honor and without
such a disposition of the spirit as is required.
A terrible judgment has befell that apostate
people who sentenced our Lord Jesus Christ to
be crucified, when they cried: His blood be on
us and on our children (Matt). But that unfor-
tunate people did not know the mystery of the
incar iation of the Son of God, and committed
that greatest crime in blindness and ignorance :
For had they known, says St. Paul, they should
not have crucified the Lord of Glory. Of how
much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall be
worthy of such an one, who was born in Chris-
tianity, from childhood taught in the mysteries
of the faith, and notwithstanding all this, hath —
166 PEEACHING IN THE KUSSIAN CHUKCH.
by light-heartedness and carelessness — trodden
underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the
blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sa?icti-
fted, an unholy thing, and hath done despite
unto the spirit of grace (Heb. x: 29).
Hence the reason why the Church with such
care strives to prepare us for the reception of
the life-giving mysteries of Christ by fast, prayer,
repentance. After a few moments when the cup
of the covenant shall be brought out, unto which
we must approach in order to reanimate within
us, renew and strengthen our covenant with
Jesus Christ, we will hear the last call of the
Church which summons thus: With fear of
God and faith approach ye. In those sacred
moments let be hushed within us all other
thoughts, let be banished from our souls all
other feelings, besides those unto which the
Holy Church would elevate our spirits. Let us
draw near with fear of God, faith and love,
that we may be partakers of the life eternal.
That we may inspire within us that sacred
fear, let us consider: Where are we now? Be-
fore whom do we stand? Unto what do we ap-
proach? Where are we? Moses, Moses, called
God to His selected leader of Israel, draw not
nigh hither : put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
for the place whereon thou standest is holy
SERMON FOR HOLY COMMUNION. 167
ground (Ex. iii: 5). Since the place unto which
God once descended has become sanctified, and
to which the man who was called the friend of
God could not approach without care, then how
much holier is the place which is sanctified by
such often repeated descensions of the Holy
Ghost at the consecration of the terrible mys-
teries upon which even the angels look with
fear.
Before whom do we stand? It is the God of
unapproachable glory, from whose presence it
was once that Mt. Sinai blazed and trembled;
the God Almighty, who spake and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast; that which is
not, He nameth a thing existing; He maketh to
die and maketh to live; He lowereth unto hell
and raiseth up again; the God All-holy, who
bears not with iniquity and shuns unrighteous-
ness; the Lord, a jealous God, who exacts of
children the sins of fathers even unto the third
and fourth generations; the God All-righteous,
who came down to see the wickedness of the
citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah, and which
cities the heavenly flame swallowed up. It is
true that God appears to us here in His body
and blood, without external grandeur and glory,
without terrible manifestations; for, were it
otherwise, we would say as the Israelites had
168 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
said: Let not God speak with us, lest we die.
(Exod).
Unto what do we approach? To the Divine
Body, which Simeon, the saintly old man, had
ouce received in his hands with holy fear; to
the Divine Body, by the touch of which the sick
were healed, the leprous cleansed, and which
the demons feared; before the nakedness and
wounds of which the sun darkened, the earth
quaked, the rocks brake; to the most Glorious
Body, which ascended into the heavens and
upon which the Cherubim and the Seraphim
look with fear. True it is that it appears to us
in the form of common food, but were it other-
wise we would say with Peter : Depart from me,
for I am a sinful man, O Lord! (Matt, v: 8).
And so it is here we stand, such is the presence
we stand before, and such is that unto which we
approach. Great is the gift we receive from the
hand of the Lord. Holy is His most pure body,
holy is His life-creating blood, and therefore let
us approach the cup of the covenant with greater
care and more fear that we may not be scorched
with its flame, that we may receive the flesh and
blood of Christ not unto judgment and con-
demnation, but unto the cleansing, the sanctifi-
cation, and the enlivening of our nature decay-
ing in sin. Amen.
ADDEESS ON CHKISTMAS DAY.
THE Orthodox Catholic Church celebrates
to-day the nativity of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ.
Christmas day is generally observed as a holi-
day throughout the world. And verily it should
be a day of rejoicing. I say rejoice, for, glory
to God in the highest, we are now enabled to
obtain peace on earth, as the good will of our
Creator and Judge has been proclaimed to all
men.
Unfortunately we now often see in the world
a decline in religious celebrations of Christian
festivals,* just as in political and civil holidays
we now often notice a tendency to withdraw from
public scenes to one's own narrow sphere of
privacy, personal comfort, and individual satis-
faction. Such conditions are detrimental to so-
ciety at large. The first cause of it all is the
family — the home from which all men and
* The majority of churches in San Francisco (as is the
general rule in America) are closed and have no purely
religious services whatever on the 25th of December.
170 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
women take into the world the form of their
future character. The nation which is devoid
of lessons in religion and patriotism in the
family — which is the fountain source of all
learning — such a nation is going to destruction.
Since we to-day magnify Christ, the giver of
life, who now was born in the flesh for our sake
of the unwedded and most pure Virgin Mary,
we may most appropriately, as duty bound, con-
sider the worth of our celebration. When we
hear the teaching of Him who to-day was a little
child seeking shelter with the cattle and sheep,
and remember that He said, I am the way, and
the life, and the truth, and also, the truth will
make you free, we are impressed with the exalted
character of Him whose mission it was and is
to gather all mankind into the one fold of the
Only Shepherd. And our Lord says the truth
will save us. We must study the truth to the
full measure of our competency, and know our
Lord Jesus Christ the Savior. We must use
our God-given intellect and discern true doctrine
from falsehood. We must worship God with our
whole being, body and soul, consequently we
develop our reason (as our faith grows stronger)
and praise the Lord understandingly. For when
we worship with the inspiring feeling of our
ADDRESS ON CHRISTMAS DAY. 171
heart only, we bring a half offering. The offer-
ing must be whole.
When we study the different forms of worship
of different people who are considered Christians,
we see that some bow in adoration with fervent
devotion, while others with exultant heart sing
loud praise, as if carried away in ecstasy, de-
priving the spirit of one of its faculties, i. e.,
adoration. Now, this is according to science,
and those who have studied psychology know it.
True and complete science is always compatible
with religion. The Orthodox and Apostolic
Church has ever held that man must offer praise
from a warm heart while devoutly adoring the
Sublime both physically and spiritually, and at
the same time following truthful doctrine. Yes,
we must seek and study the truth. I do not say
we can at once perfectly know it, for we must
first comprehend God, who is the truth. When
we become Christ-like we know the truth, and
the truth makes us free.
The Church is the treasure house of God upon
earth. I offer these precious gems to you, hoping
you will take them away to your homes, safely
guarded in a grateful heart, and earnestly ponder
over them, seeking God in prayer accompanied
by a pure life. For only then we may enter
172 PREACHING IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
into the true spirit of this celebration and rightly
comprehend the hymn we sing : " Christ is born !
Ye faithful, glorify! Christ from the heavens,
Oh come to greet Him ! Christ upon the earth,
be ye lifted on high! Sing to the Lord, all the
earth ! And in gladness praise him. O ye na-
tions ! for he hath been glorified !" Amen.
Sent to any part of Europe or America on
receipt of price, $1.00. *
N. B. — The Proceeds from the sale of this
Book to go to the Fund for the erection of a
New Cathedral in San Francisco.
Address :
Consistory of the Orthodox Church,
1715 Powell St., San Francisco,
California.
THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS.
peice 50 cents (217 p.p.)-
The Ritual, Services, and Sacraments of the
Orthodox Eastern Apostolic Church, together
with parallel teachings of other Churches,
Price 30 cents in paper, by the same author,
sent to any address on receipt of price.
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